Burning Heart
by Lady-Annabeth-Crowley
Summary: Sequel to "Hell's Bells", with Lucifer risen from the cage and both angels and demons involved in the apocalypse, Elena is put in a difficult situation when they discover that Dean and Sam play an important part in the final battle as she grows ever closer to both brothers and their rebellious angel, Castiel. Dean/Elena Rated M for language, sexual content, and violence
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I do not own TVD or Supernatural**

**Summary: Sequel to "Hell's Bells", with Lucifer risen from the cage and both angels and demons involved in the apocalypse, Elena is put in a difficult situation when they discover that Dean and Sam play an important part in the final battle as she grows ever closer to both brothers and their rebellious angel, Castiel. Rated M for language, sexual content, and violence**

**Thank you to everyone who is already reading! I love you all and I hope you like it!**

* * *

Dean and Sam's eyes popped open when they realized that they were no longer in the convent with the bright light surrounding them. They stared around with wide eyes, realizing that they were on a plane. The people around them seemed oblivious to the fact that they hadn't been there the entire time.

"What the hell?" Dean muttered.

"I don't know." Sam said.

"Where's Elena?" the older brother said, looking around wildly.

She wasn't anywhere to be found. Sam stared at the seat in front of him, the worst going through his mind. What if Lucifer got Elena? What if he killed her? It would be his fault. Dean would never forgive him. He would never forgive himself.

"Folks, quick word from the flight deck. We're just passing over Ilchester, then Ellicott City, on our initial descent into Baltimore…" the pilot said, coming over the intercom.

"Ilchester? Weren't we just there?" Dean said, confused as he looked over at Sam.

"So if you'd like to stretch your legs, now would be a good time to…" a bright flash of light filled the air and Sam and Dean knew that it was far too familiar.

"Holy crap!" the pilot shouted as a shock wave knocked the plane off kilter.

People began to be thrown around the plane, screaming, as oxygen masks dropped from the ceiling. They reached and put them on before Dean looked out the window, terrified as they dropped through the air.

* * *

Elena squinted at the man who stood there grinning at her.

"You're Gabriel?" she asked skeptically.

"Hey, don't judge the book by it's cover, sweetheart. This vessel has done good for me for a very, very long time." he said, gesturing to his body.

"How good?" she countered.

"Oh that is a story… a lot of stories… for another time." he said with a wink.

"Where are Sam and Dean?" she demanded.

"Oh don't worry about them. Daddy's got that under control." He waved off.

"Daddy? God?" she questioned, unfolding her arms and twisting her hands together as she started to believe him.

"Who else would I be talking about?" he asked, still smiling like an idiot.

He sat down on a couch and invited her to sit across from him. She remained standing stubbornly.

"Hmm… well Castiel did warn me." he shrugged.

"Cas." She said with wide eyes.

Gabriel looked up at her, the smile suddenly gone.

"Is he…?" she cut herself off, unsure of what she wanted to say.

"He got himself tangled with an archangel, sweetheart. I'll be shocked if he's not blown to a million pieces." Gabriel said.

Elena let out a sharp breath and sat on the couch, her hand going up to her mouth.

"He was… helping us." She said, feeling so regretful.

"Yeah, I've noticed that helping you doesn't exactly do good things for Cassie. I wonder why he keeps doing it." the archangel shrugged, leaning back to put his arm on the back of his couch.

Elena looked up at him with a furrowed brow.

"Because he's a good person." She said.

"He's not a person, honey. He's an angel. Who has managed to get himself way too attached to three humans." he said, rolling his eyes.

"Says the man whose been living on earth for thousands of years." Elena shot back, surprising the archangel.

"Hmm… that's not in Daddy's book. Where did you hear that?" Gabriel asked, leaning forward with interest on his face.

"Cas told me things." she said softly, looking down at her hands.

"You really are sad, aren't you?" Gabriel asked.

Elena looked up at him.

"Of course I am. Cas is… was… I…" she stammered, unsure of how to say it.

"You cared about him. Huh. Aren't humans just… interesting. You knew the guy for a few months and bam!" Gabriel clapped, making her jump slightly. "You fall for his big blue eyes." he said, smirking.

"I didn't fall for anything. Cas is a good person… angel… whatever. I appreciate the goodness in people." She snapped.

"Well you're gonna love me, sweetheart. I got a lot of goodness in me." he said, putting his hands over his heart as he winked.

"Really? Cause I have my doubts about that." she shot back.

Gabriel let out a barking laugh as he stood up.

"Oh you and I are gonna have a great time, darling." He said, holding his hand out to her.

Elena stared up at him suspiciously.

"Calm down. I'm just trying to help you out. I assume you want to get back to your boys. And out of those filthy clothes." He said, making her look down to see dust and dirt covering her clothing.

"How did that get all over me?" she wondered.

"Lucifer rose, cupcake. It was a messy affair and all that." he said simply.

She looked up and slid her hand into his.

"You seem pretty calm for an archangel when the devil literally just climbed out of his cage." She commented as he helped her up.

Gabriel shrugged.

"Can't let these kind of things get to you." he said.

Elena looked him deep in the eyes, swallowing hard.

"Is there any way… can you bring Cas back?" she asked, not knowing why she instinctively trusted this man.

"Sorry sugar. Not even all the king's horses and all the king's men can put Castiel back together again." He sighed, shaking his head.

Elena noticed that he looked truly regretful and that was enough to make her like this man… a little bit.

"What about the king?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.

Gabriel smirked at her.

"Now you're catching on." he said vaguely, throwing her off as she had no idea what that meant.

"Why did you bring me here?" she asked, knowing she wasn't going to get any more information on Cas.

"To introduce myself. We're going to be getting a lot more acquianted but, from what I've heard, I shouldn't keep you away from your boys for too long. They might just rip the country apart looking for you." he said with an amused sparkle in his eye.

She laughed softly and shook her head.

"Unfortunately, I don't think that's far off." she said, looking up at him.

He laughed as well, shrugging.

"You aren't like any angel I've met." She informed him.

"I know, those uptight bastards need to pull the sticks out of their asses, don't you think?" he asked, making her giggle lightly.

"Yeah." She nodded, agreeing with him.

"Time to get you to those Winchesters, sweetheart. But first, you trust me because I have been around since the day you were born. You just haven't seen me." he informed her, picking up her hand and pressing a kiss to her hand.

"Oh yeah? You weren't very good at playing guardian angel." She shot back.

"You're here, aren't you?" he asked, gesturing around.

"Speaking of here…" she trailed off, looking around.

"You really wanna know?" he asked, looking mischievous.

She nodded, wary of his answer.

"Morgan Freeman's house." He nodded, looking around.

"Seriously?" Elena said, unsure of whether he was joking or not.

"Yeah, seriously. I always loved the guy. His voice… it's great." He nodded, throwing her a silly grin.

"Huh. I'm in Morgan Freeman's house." She said, looking around.

"Not for long. Do me a favor and tell Dean Winchester to suck it. I'm sure he'll take you up on it." he said with a wink.

"Do you have something against…?" she was cut off by the familiar feeling of transportation.

She whirled around to discover that she was standing in an airport. Not only that, she was in totally different clothing. Clothing that was very much her style.

"Damn. That angel is good." She murmured, looking down at them with wide eyes.

Suddenly she looked around to see a SWAT team spilling into the airport, guns in hand and everything.

"What did they do?" she wondered, her eyes widening further.

When she saw a crowd of panicked people spilling out of security, most of them vowing never to fly again, she knew that either Dean and Sam flew a plane or something else bad happened. Her heart skipped a beat when she saw them walking out with the crowd, looking just as panicked as the rest of the people. Dean caught sight of her and relief covered his face as he ran at her. She did the same, not caring about the high heels that Gabriel had put her in. When they reached each other, he gathered her in his arms and she buried her face in his neck as he lifted her off the ground.

"When you weren't there… I thought the worst." He murmured, squeezing her tightly.

"I know. I'm sorry." She whispered, thankful that both he and Sam looked all right.

She drew away and looked him in the eyes as he set her on the ground.

"What happened?" she asked, gesturing to the chaos around them.

"We ended up on a plane right over Ilchester somehow and right when we did, I think the convent exploded. Light shot straight up into the sky." he explained.

"Lucifer." She sighed.

Her eyes flickered past him to Sam, who was looking as guilty as he possibly could.

"Have you…" she began.

"We haven't talked… at all." He said, sensing her question before it came.

She nodded and pulled away from him.

"So, I met the archangel Gabriel. He's a… character." She said, shaking her head as she recalled her conversation with the angel.

"Did he say anything about Cas?" Dean questioned immediately.

Her face fell.

"He thinks he's dead." She mumbled, looking down at her shoes.

"Well does he know for sure?" Sam spoke up, looking at them.

They stared at him for a moment before Elena shrugged.

"I mean he didn't see it himself…" she said.

"Then I won't believe until I see it." Dean said, taking her hand as they turned to walk out of the airport.

Elena looked back to make sure that Sam was following. When their eyes met, she smiled slightly at him, wanting to put him at ease when he was so obviously stressing about everything. No matter what he did, he was Sam. And she still cared for him.

* * *

Elena sat in the passenger seat of the rental car flipping through the stations of the radio as Dean drove and Sam sat in the backseat silently

"… and Governor O'Malley urged calm…. saying it's very unlikely an abandoned convent would be a target for terrorists, either foreign or homegrown."

Next station.

"… Hurricane Kinley, unexpectedly slamming into the Galveston area…"

Next station.

"… announced a successful test of the North Korean nuclear…"

Next station.

"… a series of tremors…"

Next station

"… swine flu…"

Elena finally shut off the radio and sighed, leaning back.

"Guys, look…" Sam finally said.

"Don't say anything." Dean cut him off.

Elena bit her lip as she stared down at her hands and there was silence in the car.

"It's okay." Dean sighed. "We just got to keep our heads down and hash this out, all right?"

A long pause filled the air again as they waited for Sam's reply.

"Yeah, okay." He said softly,

"All right, well, first things first… how did we end up on Soul Plane?" Dean asked.

Elena opened her mouth to tell them but Sam beat her to it.

"Angels, maybe? I mean, you know, beaming us out of harm's way?" he questioned.

"No, it was God." Elena said.

"God?" Dean asked.

"Like, 'our Father who art in heaven', God?" Sam said.

"That's what Gabriel said." she shrugged.

"Yeah, the angel. Great. Have you forgotten how many times angels have screwed us over?" Dean scoffed.

Elena whipped her head around to stare at him.

"No, I haven't. But this is different. You know that Gabriel is my own person angel guardian. He's been around since I was born protecting me. Though he seems to have something against you. So what'd you do to piss of an archangel?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Let's look at the long list of things I've done in my life that could possibly piss off an archangel. Maybe convincing one of his brothers to rebel is number one." Dean said.

"Nope, that's not it." Elena said, shaking her head.

"Then I got nothing." He said, shaking his head.

"Well, I hope you figure it out. Because according to Gabriel, he's gonna be around for a while." she said, turning to face the front.

"Did your archangel give you your new clothes?" Dean asked, looking at her outfit.

"Yeah I just kinda appeared with them when he transported me to the airport to find you guys." She shrugged, looking down.

"Well, whatever. We need to find Cas." He said, shaking his head.

* * *

When they arrived at Chuck's house, they immediately saw that all of the windows were blown out and the door was shattered into pieces.

"Where's the demon-killing knife?" Dean asked, turning to Elena.

Her eyes widened when she realized that she'd had it in her hands with Gabriel and now it was no longer on her. She looked at him with terrified eyes as he looked at her with an exasperated expression.

"Where did you have it last?" he sighed, rubbing his forehead.

"With Gabriel." She said softly.

He shook his head.

"Like I said, angels screw us over." He growled.

"Uh, Dean." Sam said.

"What?" He snapped.

Sam's hand appeared between the two of them holding the knife in question.

"How did you…?" Elena said, turning to him.

"I didn't. It just appeared in the seat beside me." Sam said as Dean took it out of his hand.

Elena looked up at the older brother triumphantly.

"Like I said, this is different." She said, smirking at him.

He rolled his eyes and got out of the car. As they walked into the house, Elena winced when he sliced his hand open.

* * *

As they walked through the devastated house, they heard a noise behind them in the living room. Sam walked in first, walking hesitantly as Dean and Elena followed him. Suddenly, a toilet plunger came out of nowhere and smacked Sam over the head. He stumbled backwards, pressing his hand to his head.

"Geez! Ow!" he complained, looking up at his attacker with wide eyes.

"Sam." Chuck said, looking shocked to see them.

"Yeah!" Sam said, startled and looking a little out of it.

"Hey, Chuck." Dean said, lifting his hand to wave at the prophet.

Elena waved as well, smiling slightly.

"So... you're okay?" Chuck asked.

"Well, my head hurts." Sam replied.

"No, I mean… I mean, my last vision. You went, like, full-on Vader. Your body temperature was one-fifty. Your heart rate was two hundred. Your eyes were black." He explained, making both Elena and Dean stare at the back of Sam's head.

"Your eyes went black?" Dean asked.

Sam looked at them over his shoulder, his eyes remorseful once more.

"I didn't know." He said softly.

"Where's Cas?" Dean asked, looking past his brother at Chuck.

"He's dead. Or gone. The archangel smote the crap out of him. I'm sorry." Elena felt the sinking feeling all over again and cursed herself for feeling hope that their angel survived.

"You're sure? I mean, maybe he just vanished into the light or something." Dean said, trying to keep that last shred of false hope.

"Oh, no. He, like, exploded. Like a water balloon of chunky soup." Chuck described, cutting off with an apologetic expression as Elena turned away from him to face the other direction and Dean ran his hand through his hair as he looked at the ground.

Sam squinted, looking closer at the prophet before gesturing to his own left ear.

"You got a…" he trailed off.

Chuck waved a hand at his right ear.

"Uh...right here?" he asked.

Sam shook his head, indicating the other side.

"Uh, the..." he cut off as Chuck felt his hair and pulled something out.

"Oh. Oh, god." He said, looking down at whatever it was.

"Is that a molar? Do I have a molar in my hair?" he exclaimed, looking up at them with panicked eyes as they stared at him.

"This has been a really stressful day." He whined.

"Cas, you stupid bastard." Dean sighed, ignoring the prophet as he glared at the ground.

"Stupid? He was trying to help us." Elena reminded him, still facing away.

"Yeah, exactly." Dean nodded.

"So, what now?" Sam asked, turning to face them.

"I don't know." Dean admitted as Elena looked back at him.

"Oh, crap." Chuck said, looking up at the ceiling.

"What?" Elena questioned, looking over at him.

"I can feel them." He said.

"Thought we'd find you here." A new voice said, causing them to whirl around to see Zachariah standing there with two unknown angels accompanying him.

"Playtime's over, Dean. Time to come with us." He said.

"You just keep your distance, asshat." Dean snapped, pulling Elena towards him as she was standing to close to the angels for his comfort.

"You're upset." Zachariah acknowledged.

"Yeah. A little. You sons of bitches jump-started judgment day!" he growled.

"Maybe we let it happen. We didn't start anything. Right, Sammy?" Zachariah said, winking at the younger brother who looked devastated once more.

"You had a chance to stop your brother, and you couldn't. So let's not quibble over who started what. Let's just say it was all our faults and move on. 'Cause like it or not… it's Apocalypse Now. And we're back on the same team again." Zachariah shrugged.

"Is that so?" Dean snapped.

"You want to kill the devil. We want you to kill the devil. It's...synergy." the angel shrugged.

"And I'm just supposed to trust you?" Dean scoffed. "Cram it with walnuts, ugly."

Elena bit her lip to keep from smiling at his rejection of the angel, who looked pissed.

"This isn't a game, son. Lucifer is powerful in ways that defy description. We need to strike now, hard and fast… before he finds his vessel." Zachariah said, glaring around at them.

"His vessel? Lucifer needs a meat suit?" Sam asked.

"He is an angel. Them's the rules." Zachariah chuckled, looking back at the other two angels before looking at them once more. "And when he touches down, we're talking Four Horsemen, red oceans, fiery skies… the greatest hits. You can stop him, Dean, but you need our help."

"You listen to me, you two-faced douche. After what you did, I don't want jack squat from you!" Dean said, his voice slightly raised.

"You listen to me, boy! You think you can rebel against us? As Lucifer did?" Zachariah yelled, starting forward but stopping when he noticed something.

"You're bleeding." He said, pointing at Dean's hand.

"Oh, yeah… a little insurance policy in case you dicks showed up." Dean said, pulling the door to the kitchen out to reveal the angel-banishing sigil he'd drawn when they first walked into the house.

"No!" Zachariah shouted just before he slapped his hand to it.

They all covered their eyes as the angels disappeared in a flash of white light.

"Learned that from my friend Cas, you son of a bitch!" Dean shouted, making Elena's heart drop once more.

"This sucks ass." Chuck informed them.

* * *

Elena and Dean looked up as Sam entered the motel room that they'd rented for the night. He tossed something at them as soon as he shut the door.

"Here. Hex bags. No way the angels will find us with those. Demons, either, for that matter." He explained.

"Where'd you get it?" Dean asked, examining the bag.

"I made it." Sam said.

"How?" he questioned.

Sam hesitated long enough for them both to look up at him.

"I... I learned it from Ruby." Sam said, looking anywhere but at them.

Elena watched as Dean put down the bag and walked to Sam.

"Speaking of. How you doing? Are you jonesing for another hit of bitch blood or what?" he asked bluntly.

"I… it's weird. Uh, tell you the truth, I'm fine. No shakes, no fever. It's like whoever...put me on that plane cleaned me right up." Sam explained.

"Supernatural methadone." Dean shrugged, looking back at Elena as he walked to his chair once again.

"Yeah, I guess." Sam nodded, watching them with cautious expression.

"Dean…" he began.

"It's okay. You don't have to say anything." Dean interrupted him from talking about it once more.

"Well, that's good. Because what can I even say? I'm sorry? I screwed up? Doesn't really do it justice, you know? Look, there's nothing I can do or say that will ever make this right…" Sam said.

"So why do you keep bringing it up?!" Dean shouted suddenly, making Elena jump and Sam to look at him with shock.

Sam sighed and looked down at his hands.

"Look, all I'm saying is, why do we have to put this under a microscope? We made a mess. We clean it up. That's it." Dean said, looking up at him.

Sam nodded slowly.

"All right, so, say this is just any other hunt. You know? What do we do first?" Dean said.

"We'd, uh, figure out where the thing is." Sam said.

"All right. So we just got to find... the devil." The older brother sighed, shaking his head.

* * *

In Pike Creek, Delaware, a man named Nick was walking up to his house. As he opened his front gate and let it swing shut, a wind picked up and swung the gate forward and backwards violently, causing him to turn and look at it. The gate banged open and shut once more before calming down.

Later on, lying in bed alone and restless, he pulled his hands out from under the blankets to reveal blood soaking them. He threw the sheets away and found that there was blood all over him and the blankets. He jumped out of bed and looked back at the bed to find it perfectly clean.

"All right, keep it together. Keep it together, man." he murmured to himself as he turned the light off and slid into the bed once more.

He turned over and came face to face with a woman with a blood stain on her cheek. He sat up, staring down at her in shock.

"It's you, Nick. You're special. You're chosen." She breathed reverently.

Nick shook his head, not able to believe what he was seeing as he covered his eyes with his hand. When he moved it away, she was gone and he was alone.

* * *

"And then Sam touched… no… caressed Dean's clavicle. 'This is wrong,' said Dean. 'Then I don't want to be right,' replied Sam, in a husky voice." A young woman said as she typed on her computer.

Suddenly a message appeared on her screen. **Carver Edlund Calling**.

Confused, the young woman clicked accept and gasped when the author of the Supernatural series was revealed on her computer screen.

"Oh...my...god. You. You're..." she squealed as he looked over his shoulder.

"Carver Edlund, yeah. Hi, Becky." He said, picking up his hand and waving slightly before putting it down.

"You got my letters. And my marzipan." She said excitedly.

"Yeah, yeah. Um...yummy. But, uh…"

"I am your number-one fan. You know, I'm samlicker81." Becky interrupted him.

"I'm sorry. You're… you're what?" he questioned, wanting to make sure that he heard her right.

"Webmistress at morethanbrothers dot net?" she questioned.

"Oh. Yeah. No, yeah. You're my... number-one fan." He said as if it pained him as she grinned.

"That's why I contacted you. You're the only one who will believe me." he said as he looked up to the ceiling.

"Are you all right?" she asked, frowning.

"No. I'm being watched. Okay, not, not now… at least, I don't think so. But I don't have much time. I need your help." He said, making her become overexcited again.

"You need my help?" she screeched, making him wince.

"That's right. I need you to get a message to Sam and Dean. Okay?" he asked.

She sighed, looking down at her hands.

"Look, Mr. Edlund... Yes, I'm a fan, but I really don't appreciate being mocked. I know that Supernatural's just a book, okay? I know the difference between fantasy and reality." She said, sounding put-out.

"Becky, it's all real!" he interrupted her.

"I knew it!" She squealed.

* * *

Elena sighed as a loud voice woke her out of her sleep. She sat up slowly, looking around.

"How long have I slept?" she asked, seeing Dean sitting next to her and Sam at the table.

"About three hours." Dean answered.

"And you two?" she asked.

They both shrugged.

"An hour." They answered together.

She opened her mouth to berate them but the televisin interrupted her.

"How would you then explain an earthquake, a hurricane, and multiple tornadoes, all at the same time, all around the globe?" the newscaster asked, facing a man who looked full of himself.

"Two words. Carbon emissions." He answered proudly.

"Yeah, right, wavy gravy." Dean scoffed to the man.

A knock sounded on the door and Dean immediately pulled his gun as Sam walked to answer it. When he opened it, a young woman about Elena's age was revealed looking very excited. She took a deep breath, having trouble with it.

"You okay, lady?" Sam asked, unsure of what to do.

"Sam... is it really you?" she said in a high-pitched voice.

Sam glanced back at them and Elena watched as the girl stepped closer and put a hand on his chest.

"And you're so firm." She sighed happily.

"Uh, do I know you?" Sam asked, sounding thoroughly creeped out.

"No. But I know you. You're Sam Winchester. And you're…" she glanced over at Elena, looking confused at her presence, before looking at Dean.

"… not what I pictured. I'm Becky." She said, pushing past Sam and into the room as Dean stood up.

"I read all about you guys. And I've even written a few…" she glanced down, giggling nervously and Elena had a feeling that she belonged in the Sam/Dean group.

"Anyway, Mr. Edlund told me where you were." She said.

"Chuck?" Dean asked as Sam closed the door.

"He's got a message, but he's being watched. Angels. Nice change-up to the mythology, by the way. The demon stuff was getting kind of old." Becky whispered as if it was some big secret.

"Right. Just, um... what's the message?" Sam asked, walking to stand in front of her as Elena stood and stretched out.

"He had a vision. 'The Michael sword is on earth. The angels lost it'." she recited.

"The Michael sword?" Dean asked, sounding confused.

"Becky, does he know where it is?" Sam asked, sounding hopeful.

"In a castle, on a hill made of forty-two dogs." Becky nodded.

"Forty-two dogs?" Dean asked.

"Are... you sure you got that right?" Elena questioned, wondering about this girl's sanity.

"It doesn't make sense, but that's what he said." she said, stepping closer to Sam.

"I memorized every word." She whispered, reaching out to touch his chest. "For you."

Sam glanced over at Elena and Dean for help, both of whom shrugged and shook their heads as if to say, 'you are on your own'.

"Um, Becky, c… uh, can you... quit touching me?" he asked, bewildered by this strange girl's behavior.

"No." she said, shaking her head.

* * *

A few hours later, another knock sounded and Elena looked up from where she was finishing up curling her hair at the desk to watch Dean open the door. Seeing as they didn't have any clothes with them, she'd gone out shopping and found an outfit to change into after showering.

"Hey, Bobby." Dean sighed as Bobby hugged him immediately, clapping him on the back.

"Good to see you boys all in one piece." He said, hugging Sam who was smiling.

Then he turned to Elena and walked over to her as she stood, hugging her as well.

"Thanks for bringing 'em back." he murmured.

"I didn't do much, but you're welcome." She whispered back before he pulled away.

"You weren't followed, were you?" Dean asked as he turned back to them.

"You mean by angels, demons, or Sam's new superfan?" Bobby asked, gesturing to the younger Winchester as he walked to sit at the table and they all followed him.

Sam laughed as Elena leaned over Dean's shoulder and Bobby pulled out a book.

"You heard." Sam said, nodding.

"I heard, Romeo. So...sword of Michael, huh?" he said, looking up at them.

"You think we're talking about the actual sword from the actual archangel?" Dean asked skeptically.

"You better friggin' hope so." Bobby sighed, opening the book to reveal a painting of Michael surrounded by other angels.

"That's Michael. Toughest son of a bitch they got." He said, pointing to him.

"You kidding me? Tough? That guy looks like Cate Blanchett." Dean scoffed.

"Well, I wouldn't want to meet him in a dark alley, believe me. He commands the heavenly host. During the last big dust-up upstairs, he's the one who booted Lucifer's ass to the basement. Did it with that sword." Bobby explained, pointing at the sword he was holding in the painting.

"So if we can find it..." he trailed off.

"We can kick the devil's ass all over again. All right. So, where do we start?" Sam asked.

"Divvy up and start reading… try and make sense of Chuck's nonsense." Bobby said, picking up his bag and revealing a pile of books he brought.

Sam began to reach for them but hesitated, staring at them before looking up at Bobby.

"Kid? You all right?" Bobby asked.

"No, actually. Bobby, this is all my fault. I'm sorry." He said.

"Sam..." Dean began, shaking his head.

"Lilith did not break the final seal. Lilith was the final seal." He said before his brother could stop him.

"Sam, stop it." Dean snapped, not wanting to talk about it.

"I killed her, and I set Lucifer free." Sam continued.

"You what?" Bobby said, standing up slowly.

Elena straightened out as Dean did the same.

"You guys warned me about Ruby, the demon blood, but I didn't listen. I brought this on." Sam said regretfully.

Neither Dean nor Elena said anything as Bobby stood and moved closer.

"You're damn right you didn't listen. You were reckless and selfish and arrogant." Bobby growled, sounding pissed.

"I'm sorry." Sam said desperately.

"Oh, yeah? You're sorry you started Armageddon? This kind of thing don't get forgiven, boy. If, by some miracle, we pull this off...I want you to lose my number. You understand me?" Bobby said harshly, making tears fill Sam's eyes.

But he nodded understandingly as if he'd been expecting this outcome.

Elena looked up at Dean to see him sporting a carefully guarded expression. It wasn't that she expected him to stand up for Sam, but he could at least tell Bobby to back off a little bit. Sam was still his little brother whether he liked it or not.

"There's an old church nearby. Maybe I'll go read some of the lore books there." Sam said, backing away slightly.

"Yeah. You do that." Bobby agreed.

Sam turned to walk out and Bobby looked up at Dean and Elena, who was still staring up at the older brother.

"I'm gonna go with him." she said, pushing away from Dean as she walked to the bed and picked up her coat.

"Elena…" Dean began.

"I'm going, Dean." She snapped, turning to give him a pointed stare before she walked out of the room as well.

* * *

Elena caught up to Sam quickly, falling into step beside him.

"Elena, what are you doing?" he sighed, looking down at her once he noticed her.

"Coming with you." she said simply.

"Look I know you're all disappointed in me and stuff but I don't need a babysitter. I'm not gonna go on a demon blood binge." Sam said roughly.

"That's not why I'm coming with you. You don't need to be alone right now. Not because you can't be trusted, but because you really don't need to be alone right now. You need someone with you who won't judge you. Who won't make you defend yourself, remember?" Elena asked, referring to their first semi-serious conversation, if one didn't count the funny physics talk.

Sam stopped and looked at her.

"You really don't want anything? No explanation? No defense? You don't want to scream and yell and hit me?" he asked.

She looked up at him, shoving her hands in the pocket of her trenchcoat.

"I don't want a single thing. Sam, that doesn't matter to me. I meant what I said at the convent. You're all right. That's what matters." She said honestly.

"And if I'm not all right?" he asked.

She sighed and shook her head.

"Then we'll get you there, okay? I'm not abandoning you, Sam. No matter how much you might want me to. I know that you feel the need to be punished. That's why you told Bobby what happened. Dean wasn't punishing you and I wasn't punishing you. Hell even the angels didn't do anything to you. You wanted to be punished. You wanted someone to hate you. But what Bobby said was wrong. He was wrong to say it and he'll never be able to take that back now. You're not going to find any punishment from me. All you're going to find is patience, understanding, and love. Because I am going to understand the crap out of you. I'm gonna have you wishing that Lucifer had killed us with all of my patience all up in your face." She said, grinning at him.

He smiled back hesitantly.

"Bobby will come around so stop beating yourself up about that. Let's go figure out where this Michael sword is." She said, turning to walk to towards the church again.

"All right." he agreed, nodding as he fell into step with her once more.

* * *

"I never would have guessed that your daddy was right." Bobby said as him and Dean sat at the table in the motel room researching.

"About what?" Dean asked.

"About your brother."

Dean looked up at him with a confused expression

"What John said… you save Sam or kill him. Maybe..." he trailed off.

"Maybe what?" Dean questioned.

"Maybe we shouldn't have tried so hard to save him." Bobby shrugged.

"Bobby…" Dean said, shaking his head.

"He ended the world, Dean. And you and I weren't strong enough to stop him proper. That's on us. I'm just saying, your dad was right." he said, trying to make the older Winchester see it his way.

Suddenly, realization dawned in Dean's eyes.

"Dad." He murmured, jumping up to rummage through his bag.

He finally pulled out a Ziplock bag full of cards and began rifling through it.

"It's got to be in here somewhere." He grumbled.

"What the hell are you talking about?" Bobby demanded.

"Here." Dean said, pulling one out to read it.

Bobby stood up and Dean walked over.

"I don't believe it."

"What the hell is it?" Bobby asked.

"It's a card for my dad's lockup in upstate New York. Read it." Dean said, handing it over to the older hunter.

"Castle Storage. 42 Rover Hill." He recited.

"Castle on a hill of forty-two dogs." Dean said, taking the card back.

"So you think your dad had the Michael sword all this time?" Bobby questioned.

"I don't know. I'm not sure what else Chuck could have meant." Dean shrugged, turning away to put the card back in the bag.

"Yeah. Okay. It's good enough for me." Bobby said before jumping at Dean and slamming him through the barrier between the kitchen and the beds.

He turned him over and yanked him up, slamming him back down on the floor as his eyes went black.

* * *

Elena stopped short before they crossed the street to the church.

"Something is wrong." She said, looking over at Sam with panicked eyes.

"What?" he asked.

She didn't answer, instead bending down to slip off her heels before running back in the direction of the motel with Sam hot on her heels.

* * *

Demon Bobby grabbed Dean by his throat and dragged him to his feet as he sagged weakly. The door slammed open and two demons, a male and a female, entered.

"I always knew you were a big, dumb, slow, dim pain in the ass, Dean. But I never dreamed you were so V.I.P." the female demon said said with a wry grin, spotting Ruby's knife on the table and picking it up.

"I mean, you're gonna ice the devil? You? If I'd have known that, I'd have ripped your pretty, pretty face off ages ago." she commented, running her hand over the blade.

"Ruby." Dean gasped out.

"Try again. Go back further." She said, smirking at him.

"Meg?" he asked.

"Hi. These are the days of miracle and wonder, Dean. Our father's among us. You know we're all dreaming again for the first time since we were human? It's heaven on earth. Or hell. We really owe your brother a fruit basket." Meg said, reaching out to pat his cheek.

"My God, you like the sound of your own voice." He snapped, glaring at her as Demon Bobby continued to hold her up.

"But you, on the other hand, you're the only bump in the road. So every demon… every single one… is just dying for a piece of you." she informed him.

"Get in line." Dean said, smirking back.

"Oh, I'm in the front of the line, baby. Let's ride." Meg said, leaning in to kiss him as he grunted and struggled, trying to pull away.

"What is that, peanut butter?" he asked, grimacing after she pulled away.

"You know, your surrogate daddy's still awake screaming in there. And I want him to know how it feels slicing the life out of you." she said, handing the knife to Demon Bobby who raised it to Dean's throat as he struggled in his grip.

"Bobby!" he shouted, trying to get through to the human.

The demon looked back at Meg for instructions.

"Now!" Meg commanded.

Demon Bobby raised the knife to stab it into Dean.

"Bobby! No!" Dean yelled.

* * *

Elena bolted down the hallway as fast as she could, turning to run to the door. She concentrated without knowing it and the door flew open just as she reached it. She ran inside just in time to see Bobby holding Dean by the throat with two other people surrounding him. He was holding a knife high in the air.

"No!" she screamed as it came down.

Dean didn't collapse to the floor, though. Bobby did. Dean suddenly launched forward and knocked into the male demon, who reacted immediately and slammed him into the wall. Elena immediately ran to the demon and ripped him off of Dean and whirled him around as Sam turned Bobby over and saw the knife sticking out of his stomach.

"Sam, the knife!" Elena shouted.

He winced as he ripped it out of Bobby's gut but turned to stab it into the demon's chest without hesitation. Elena immediately dropped the demon and turned to the female with narrowed eyes.

"Who the hell are you?" the demon bitch growled.

"I'm Elena. Dean and Sam's guardian. Nice to meet you. Memorize my face and tell everyone about it cause I'm going to foil each and every attempt of yours to kill these boys." She said, launching forward.

"Elena!" Sam shouted.

She turned in time to see him toss the knife at her. She caught it easily and turned on the demon. She took one look at the knife and threw her head back, black smoke streaming out of her mouth. Elena sighed and lowered the knife as the woman collapsed to the floor unconscious. She turned and knelt at Bobby's side, putting her hands to his abdomen where the knife wound was.

"Elena…" Dean said.

"Dammit!" she cried, interrupting him as she felt no power coming.

"Elena we can't wait. We have to get him to the hospital." Sam urged her.

She pushed herself away as tears filled her eyes. Dean and Sam lifted Bobby up as she held the doors open for them and they rushed down to the Impala.

* * *

**Pike Creek, Delaware**

Nick carried a blanket and a few teddy bears past a freestanding baby rocker to a cardboard box. Suddenly, as he passed it, the rocker began moving on it's own. Nick turned to look at it with a panicked look before walking over to stop it. When a baby's crying noise filled the air, he looked over at the cardboard box before running to it, digging through it frantically to find the baby monitor that was emitting the noise. He stared at it, just listening. Then he turned to look at the stairs before walking up. As he opened the door to the nursery, the crying went silent. He stared at the crib for a moment once he turned on the light and nothing happened. He turned away and the crying began again. When he turned back, blood began pouring out of the crib and onto the carpet.

"No." he breathed, stumbling to the crib and falling to his knees, sobbing loudly as the crying filled his ears.

Suddenly it stopped and he looked up to see that the blood was gone and everything was back to normal.

* * *

Elena ran behind Sam and Dean as they ran into the ER still supporting Bobby, who was covered in blood.

"Need some help here!" Dean shouted.

"What happened?" a nurse asked as she ran forward.

"He was stabbed." Sam said.

"Can we get a gurney?" the nurse demanded when she saw how pale Bobby was.

Two nurses rushed a gurnery over and Sam and Dean hauled him up onto it.

"Hang on, Bobby. Hang in there. You're gonna be okay." Dean said before they rushed the gurney off.

They moved to follow but a nurse stopped them.

"Just wait here." She said.

"We can't just leave him." Sam said desperately, looking after the man they thought of as their father.

"Just don't move. I've got questions." she said, turning to walk off.

"Sammy, we got to go." Dean said, tugging at his brother's arm.

"No. No way, Dean." Sam resisted.

"The demons heard where the sword is. We got to get to it before they do, if we're not too late already. Come on!" Dean said, grabbing Elena's hand and turning to leave.

They checked back to make sure Sam was following as they ran out of the hospital.

* * *

They were all tense as they walked up to the storage unit. Each of them were holding shotguns at the ready. Dean reached out and unlocked the door quickly before they walked in. They were immediately greeted with the sight of two dead demons.

"I see you told the demons where the sword is." A voice said from behind them.

They whirled around to see Zachariah standing there with the same two angels escorting him.

"Oh, thank god. The angels are here." Dean snapped.

"And to think... they could have grabbed it any time they wanted." Zachariah chuckled, waving his hand to close the door.

As they were distracted, one of the angels launched forward and grabbed Elena, pulling her away from the brothers and behind Zachariah.

"Hey!" Dean shouted as she strugged against their strength as both angels held her in place.

"It was right in front of them." Zachariah shrugged, continuing as if his angels hadn't just taken possession of Elena.

"What do you mean?" Sam demanded.

"Let her go!" Dean growled, not caring about Zachariah's words.

"We may have planted that particular piece of prophecy inside Chuck's skull, but it happened to be true. We did lose the Michael sword. We truly couldn't find it. Until now. You've just hand-delivered it to us." He said happily.

"We don't have anything. Let her go now!" Dean said, glaring at the angel.

"It's you, chucklehead. You're the Michael sword." Zachariah informed him.

Dean simply stared at him.

"What, you thought you could actually kill Lucifer? You simpering wad of insecurity and self-loathing? No. You're just a human, Dean. And not much of one." Zachariah laughed.

"What do you mean, I'm the sword?" Dean demanded.

"You're Michael's weapon. Or, rather, his... receptacle." He informed him.

"I'm a vessel?" Dean asked, skeptical.

"You're the vessel. Michael's vessel." Zachariah nodded in confirmation.

"How? Why… why me?" Dean asked.

"Because you're chosen! It's a great honor, Dean." He assured the older Winchester.

"Oh, yeah. Yeah, life as an angel condom. That's real fun. I think I'll pass, thanks." Dean scoffed, shaking his head.

"Joking. Always joking. Well...no more jokes." Zachariah said, raising his hand and pointing his fingers like a gun at Dean.

Then he switched directions to Sam.

"Bang."

A loud cracking noise filled the room and Sam fell to the ground shouting in pain.

"You son of a bitch!" Dean shouted as Elena screamed in panic.

"Keep mouthing off, I'll break more than his legs. I am completely and utterly through screwing around. The war has begun. We don't have our general. That's bad. Now, Michael is going to take his vessel and lead the final charge against the adversary. You understand me?" Zachariah said, staring unemotionally at Dean.

"How many humans die in the crossfire, huh? A million? Five, ten?" Dean demanded.

"Probably more. If Lucifer goes unchecked, you know how many die? All of them. He'll roast the planet alive." The angel fired back.

"There's a reason you're telling me this instead of just nabbing me. You need my consent. Michael needs my say-so to ride around in my skin." Dean said, finding the loophole.

"Unfortunately, yes." Zachariah sighed.

"Well, there's got to be another way." Dean said, his eyes shifting to Elena's panicked face as she stared back and forth between him and writhing Sam.

"There is no other way. There must be a battle. Michael must defeat the serpent. It is written." Zachariah said.

"Yeah, maybe. But, on the other hand... Eat me. The answer's no." Dean snapped, glaring a him.

"Okay. How about this? Your friend Bobby—we know he's gravely injured. Say yes, and we'll heal him. Say no, he'll never walk again." Zachariah suggested.

Elena and Sam glanced at Dean, afraid that he would take the deal.

"No." Dean said, shaking his head.

"Then how about we heal you from...stage-four stomach cancer?" he said, looking at Dean with narrowed eyes.

Dean suddenly doubled over coughing and spitting up blood in his hand.

"No." he choked out, falling to his knees.

"Then let's get really creative." Zachariah said, turning towards Elena who was still being held by the demons.

"Don't you touch her, you son of a bitch!" Dean gasped, clutching at his stomach.

"Let's see… how you do without your precious guardian." He lifted his hand and twisted it.

An even louder cracking filled the air and the brothers watched on with horror as Elena's body twisted grotesquely and she fell to the floor with blank eyes.

"No!" they both shouted, emotional and physical pain in their voices.

"Say yes and I'll revive her." Zachariah said simply, turning to Dean. "Are we having fun yet? You're going to say yes, Dean."

"Just kill us." Dean said, staring at Elena's lifeless body with fear in his eyes.

"Kill you? Oh, no. I'm just getting started." Zachariah chuckled, lifting his hand towards Sam.

Suddenly a bright light filled the room and Zachariah turned to see one of his angels collapsng, a bloody hole in his throat. Castiel stood just behind him holding an angel-killing sword. The other angel launched forward to fight Castiel. Sam, Dean, and Zachariah watched as the fight unfolded. After they slammed each other around a few times, Castiel finally got the upper hand and shoved the angel against the wall before shoving the blade through his chest. Bright light flashed once again and Zachariah stared as Castiel backed away and turned to face them.

"How are you...?" Zachariah began.

"Alive? That's a good question. How did these two end up on that airplane? Another good question. 'Cause the angels didn't do it. I think we both know the answer, don't we?" Castiel said, narrowing his eyes at the other angel.

"No. That's not possible." Zachariah said, shaking his head.

"It scares you. Well, it should. Now, put these boys back together and go. I won't ask twice." Castiel threatened.

Suddenly Zachariah vanished and the boys looked up at Castiel with shocked expressions as he walked over to kneel next to Elena. He pressed a hand to her forehead and she gasped, sitting up with a small cry. Her eyes drifted upwards slowly to rest on his face.

"Cas?" she breathed.

"Yes. I am…" he began.

The breath was knocked out of his human vessel when she tackled him in a hug, tears already filling her eyes as she squeezed him to her.

"You're alive." She whimpered, clutching at him.

"Yes, I seem to be alive." He agreed.

She pulled away slowly and continued to stare at him.

"It was God, wasn't it?" she asked.

He nodded and stood, helping her to her feet.

"The king did put you back together." She said with a grin, thinking back on her conversation with Gabriel.

Cas nodded and turned to Dean.

"You three need to be more careful." He informed them.

"Yeah, I'm starting to get that. Your frat brothers are bigger dicks than I thought." Dean said, looking at Elena with a relieved expression.

"I don't mean the angels. Lucifer is circling his vessel. And once he takes it, those hex bags won't be enough to protect you." he said, walking forward to put one hand on Dean's chest and the other on Sam's.

They gasped loudly and pushed away from him as they felt a strange feeling. Castiel turned and put a hand on Elena's chest as well, making her shift uncomfortably before she felt the same weird feeling.

"What the hell was that?" Dean demanded, massaging his ribs.

"An Enochian sigil. It'll hide you from every angel in creation, including Lucifer." The angel explained.

"What, did you just brand us with it?" Elena asked.

"No. I carved it into your ribs." He said.

There was a pause in which they all looked around at each other.

"Hey, Cas, were you really dead?" Sam asked.

"Yes." He nodded.

"Then how are you back?" Dean asked.

Castiel looked back at Elena before nodding and vanishing.

* * *

**Pike Creek, Delaware**

Nick was lying on the bed in his empty bedroom.

"Nick." He sat up, seeing his wife, Sarah, standing at the foot of the bed.

"Nick. You're dreaming, Nick. But it doesn't mean this isn't real." She said softly.

"Sarah?" he questioned carefully.

"I'm not your wife, Nick. I'm an angel." She said, looking down at him.

"An angel?" Nick questioned.

"My name is Lucifer." she said.

"Sure. Naturally. Um... could you do me a favor there, Satan, and remind me to quit drinking before I go to bed?" he said, shaking his head.

"I'm here because you're special, Nick. There's very, very few people like you." Lucifer said, smiling at him.

"Is that so?" Nick asked.

"You're a vessel… a very powerful vessel." Lucifer informed him.

Nick turned to swing his legs off of the bed.

"Meaning what, exactly?" he asked.

"I need to take control of your mind and your body. To be honest, it'll probably be unpleasant for you. But it is necessary."

"Okay, look... if it's just the same to you, I think I'd like to wake up now." Nick said.

"I told you… this is real. Don't be afraid. This is your choice." Lucifer said, sitting on the bed next to him. "You need to invite me in."

"Even if this is real… which it's not, but assuming it was... why the hell would I do something like that?" he demanded.

"You people misunderstand me. You call me 'Satan' and 'devil', but... do you know my crime? I loved God too much. And for that, he betrayed me… punished me. Just as he's punished you. After all, how could God stand idly by while that man broke into your home and butchered your family in their beds?" Lucifer asked.

Nick turned his head and swallowed hard.

"There are only two rational answers, Nick… either he's sadistic, or he simply doesn't care. You're angry. You have every right to be angry. I am angry, too. That's why I want to find him… hold him accountable for his actions. Just because he created us doesn't mean he can toy with us, like playthings." Lucifer said, trying to convince him.

"If I help you... can you bring back my family?" Nick asked hesitantly.

"I'm sorry. I can't. But I can give you the next best thing. God did this to you, Nick. And I can give you justice. Peace." Lucifer said.

"How do I know you're telling the truth?" he asked, staring at him.

"Because, contrary to popular belief, I don't lie. I don't need to. What I need...is you. Nick, I need you to say yes."

Nick closed his eyes, remembering the blood pouring from the crib and the devastating crying.

"Then yes." He nodded.

* * *

"Unlikely to walk again?! Why, you snot-nosed son of a bitch! Wait till I get out of this bed!" They heard Bobby's raised voice as they walked down the hallway.

They exchanged wary glances as a doctor fled out of the room and they walked in.

"I'll use my game leg and kick your friggin' ass! Yeah, you better run!" he shouted.

He looked up at them as they walked in.

"You believe that yahoo?" he demanded, shaking his head as he lay there in his bed.

"Screw him. You'll be fine." Dean shrugged off, making Elena give him a questioning stare at the possible false hope he was giving Bobby.

She'd already tried to heal him again but the angels must have been holding her back because there wasn't a single thing she could do.

"So, let me ask the million-dollar question. What do we do now?" Sam asked after a few moments of silence.

"Well... we save as many as we can for as long as we can, I guess. It's bad. Whoever wins, heaven or hell, we're boned." Bobby shrugged.

"What if we win?" Dean asked.

They all stared at him, wondering why he sounded so confident.

"I'm serious. I mean, screw the angels and the demons and their crap apocalypse. Hell, they want to fight a war, they can find their own planet. This one's ours, and I say they get the hell off it. We take 'em all on. We kill the devil. Hell, we even kill Michael if we have to. But we do it our own damn selves." Dean suggested.

"And how are we supposed to do all this, genius?" Bobby demanded.

"I got no idea. But what I do have is a GED and a give-'em-hell attitude, and I'll figure it out." the older brother said with a smirk.

"You are nine kinds of crazy, boy." Bobby said, shaking his head.

"It's been said." Dean shrugged before patting Bobby's shoulder.

"Listen, you stay on the mend. We'll see you in a bit." He said, turning to head for the door.

Elena smiled and bent down, pressing a kiss to the older hunter's cheek.

"See you later, Bobby." She said softly before turning to walk out as well.

Sam turned to walk beside her but Bobby's voice stopped all three of them.

"Sam?" he said.

"I was awake. I know what I said back there. I just want you to know that... that was the demon talking. I ain't cutting you out, boy. Not ever." Bobby said as Sam turned to face him.

There was a long pause before Sam sighed heavily.

"Thanks, Bobby." He said.

"You're welcome. I deserve a damn medal for this, but...you're welcome." Bobby said, rolling his eyes as they walked out the door.

* * *

"You know, I was thinking… maybe we could go after the Colt." Sam suggested as they walked out into the cold air.

"Why? What difference would that make?" Dean questioned as they walked across the parking lot.

"Well, we could use it on Lucifer. I mean, you just said back there…" Sam trailed off.

Dean stopped and turned to face him, making Elena stop and stare at him questioningly.

"I just said a bunch of crap for Bobby's benefit." He said.

Elena stared at him with a questioning look.

"I mean, I'll fight. I'll fight till the last man, but let's at least be honest. I mean, we don't stand a snowball's chance, and you know that. I mean, hell, you of all people know that." he said, scoffing as he shook his head and turned to walk to the Impala.

"Dean..." Sam said, stopping him and making him turn back again. "Is there something you want to say to me?" he asked.

There was a long pause and part of Elena prayed that Dean would say no, that he would leave it alone like he had been doing.

"I tried, Sammy." He sighed.

Elena bowed her head and knew that everything was about to blow up.

"I mean, I really tried. But I just can't keep pretending that everything's all right. Because it's not. And it's never going to be. You chose a demon over your own brother…"

Sam bowed his head and shook it.

"… and look what happened." He finished.

"I would give anything… anything… to take it all back." Sam assured him.

"I know you would. And I know how sorry you are. I do. But, man... you were always the one that I depended on the most. For our whole lives, you know? And you let me down in ways that I can't even..." Dean sighed, struggling for words as his brow furrowed and a frown settled even deeper on his face.

"I'm just… I'm having a hard time forgiving and forgetting here. You know?" he said.

"What can I do?" Sam asked desperately.

"Honestly? Nothing." Dean said simply.

Sam nodded and looked down, not surprised by this conclusion. Elena bit her lip and turned to walk to the Impala, not wanting to intrude on the conversation more than she already had. But she could still hear it from where she was.

"I just don't… I don't think that we can ever be what we were. You know?" Dean sighed.

Sam nodded again as he even expected that his big brother would say that.

"I just don't think I can trust you."

Sam's head snapped up and Elena noticed that he didn't expect for Dean to come to that conclusion. Dean shook his head, turning to walk to the Impala. He paused at the trunk, turning to look back at Sam before walking the rest of the way. They got in at the same time, waiting for Sam to get in the backseat. Dean looked down at his hands.

"I… have no idea if I just did the right thing. Did I? I mean, was I too harsh?" he asked, looking over at her.

Elena looked back at him.

"It's not my job to hold grudges against Sam, Dean." She sighed.

"But it's my job?" he asked, sounding offended.

"No, it's your job to hold him up to a high standard. You're disappointed when he doesn't reach that standard and with good reasons. He's your brother. You're supposed to expect the best of him. That's just not my job. I have no idea if you were too harsh back there because I'm biased. I've used tough love on my brother so I know the basic concept." She said, looking down at her hands.

They were interrupted from speaking anymore as Sam climbed into the backseat. Dean sighed and put the car in reverse, turning to drive away. Each inhabitant of the car had a heavy heart as they drove down the road.

* * *

**Author's Note: Please review! That's all I have to say for now!**

**Elena's oufits, as always, are on my profile.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I do not own TVD or Supernatural**

**Thanks to nluvwithemmettcullen, Dark-Supernatural-Angel, Dark Alana, Raven176, neontreeslover, Nyssandria, DrawingMyHeartOut, TheElegantFaerie, slayerdiaries, LineChokor, RHatch89, xxPaige23xx, diehardromantic, and the guest for reviewing!**

**A few things:**

**1. All right, so this is an experimental chapter. I am writing a case that isn't on the show and I'm kinda nervous about it. I haven't done this yet. Please be nice even if you hate it. Thank you!**

**2. This chapter, some side effects from Zachariah killing Elena are shown in this chapter. She might seem a little OOC but I promise there's a reason for it.**

**3. Elena and Dean fight, sorry guys. But everyone is stressed. Apocalypse.**

* * *

Elena pasted a smile on her face as the elevator doors opened. She immediately caught sight of the nurse's station in front of her.

"Hey, Elena." the nurse on call, Sharon, said.

"Hey, Sharon. How is he today?" she questioned, grinning at the older woman.

"He's cranky, as usual. Still refuses to talk but grunts and growls every time I tell him to do something." Sharon said, rolling her eyes.

"That's Bobby for you." Elena said, shaking her head with a smile as she turned to walk to his room.

"You know, you really shouldn't be here! It's not visiting hours!" the nurse called after her.

"You're not gonna kick me out, Sharon!" Elena said back over her shoulder.

"Yeah, just cause you keep him from bothering me while you're here." Sharon replied.

Elena let out a short laugh as she pushed the door open. She immediately caught sight of Bobby sitting at the window with a robe on and his cap firmly in place.

"I brought you something." She said, walking in and placing the paper grocery bags that she was carrying on the bed.

She sighed when he didn't even acknowledge her presence. Instead of talking to him further, she turned and closed all of the blinds. Then she walked to the bags and pulled out the six pack of beer that she brought.

"I'm absolutely positive that this is against hospital policy but no one searched my bag so I got away with it." she said, opening of them and carrying it to him, kneeling in front of him as she handed it to him.

He brought the bottle up to his mouth automatically, still staring past her out the window.

"You will talk to me, Bobby Singer." She said with narrowed eyes, pointing at him.

His eyes flashed with amusement but nothing else happened. That little break in his cold exterior was enough for her for now.

"I also brought some sandwiches and leftover pie of Dean's that he didn't need if you decide that you're tired of mashed potatoes and jello." She informed him, walking to the chair to sit in it with her own beer in her hand.

He looked over at her with the same question in his eyes that she'd seen every night since he ended up in the hospital. Why was she there? Why wasn't she at the motel with the boys sleeping?

"You know I'm not gonna answer to you until you say something." She said with a shrug.

He narrowed his eyes and she smiled.

"You are stubborn as hell, you know that?" he finally grumbled.

Elena grinned even wider and looked up at the clock on the wall.

"I'm calling it! April 17! 11:59 P.M. The date and time that Elena Gilbert outlasted Bobby Singer's stubbornness!" she proclaimed triumphantly.

"Would you shut it and get me a glass of water?" he said, shaking his head at her.

"Sure thing." She said with a silly grin still on her face as she hopped up to grab a glass of of his table and go into the bathroom.

She hummed happily, momentarily forgetting why she was avoiding sleep so much, as she turned on the water to fill it. Elena looked up into the mirror as it filled up, frowning at the bags underneath her eyes and her messily thrown up hair. She'd rushed out of the motel room as soon as Sam and Dean fell asleep, not really caring about her appearance. Her lack of care was showing so she was glad she was simply at the hospital.

She realized that she'd stopped paying attention to the water when something warm rushed over her hand. At the exact same moment, she remembered that she'd turned the water on freezing cold and a scream echoed down the hallway outside of the room. Elena looked down to see that her hand and the sink were covered in blood. She let out a cry of shock and jumped back, dropping the blood filled glass on the ground and watching as it shattered.

"Elena?" Bobby questioneed in a panicked voice from outside.

He wheeled himself to the door to see the blood splattered everywhere.

"Did you cut yourself?" he asked.

Elena shook her head and pointed a shaking hand at the faucet that was still pouring out the sticky substance. Bobby stared at it with wide eyes as she walked forward and shut it off. Then she turned to a towel and picked it up, wiping her hand off as best she could.

"What the hell?" Bobby breathed.

"I don't know." Elena replied in a soft voice as she backed out of the bathroom with a pale face.

When another scream reached their ears, she turned to run out of the hospital room to see what was going on. Sharon came running by holding a bloodsoaked towel.

"Sharon?" Elena called, running up to her.

"It's everywhere. All of the faucets. The toilets. The showers. Everything. All of the water is blood." She said, her eyes wide and fearful.

"I know, I saw." Elena nodded.

"It's the devil. I know it." Sharon said, tears filling her eyes as she clutched at a cross around her neck and turned to run off once more.

Elena stared around with shock as she pulled out her cell phone slowly. She hated that she had to make this phone call but she did.

"Hello?" a groggy voice answered.

"H… hey. Dean, it's me. I… I'm at the hospital with Bobby. You'd better get down here." She said in a shaky voice as she listened to the panic rising around her.

* * *

She was waiting at the door when they came running up. Luckily, she'd walked to the hospital so they had the Impala to drive there.

"Seriously? With the blood?" Dean demanded as they ran in.

"It was everywhere. In everything. I don't know if it's still going on. I heard that they shut the water off to make it stop but every time they turn on the faucets more comes out." she explained as they walked to the elevator and rode up to Bobby's room.

"When did it start?" Sam asked as they walked into the room.

Elena looked at them for a moment before looking back at Bobby for help.

"It was midnight. Exactly at midnight. Remember you read the clock before you went in the bathroom." He reminded her, shocking the two brothers by actually speaking.

"Right. Midnight. It was midnight." She nodded, turning back to them.

"That can't be a coincidence." Dean acknowledged.

"Do you think it's something demonic? Should we be looking for sulfur or something?" Elena asked, still a little shaky from the experience.

"Are you all right?" Sam asked, finally noticing that she was still quite pale.

"Fine. I'm fine. I just… it was a little bit of a shock." she nodded, sitting down on Bobby's bed.

"Why were you here, anyways?" Dean asked, making her head snap up to him.

"I couldn't sleep. I decided to come visit Bobby and bring him stuff." She said quickly, gesturing to the bags.

"Mm-hm… and the night before that? Oh and the night before that?" Dean asked, sounding accusatory all of the sudden.

Elena stared up at him with wide eyes.

"Leave the poor girl alone, Dean. She was making sure this old man wasn't lonely." Bobby said, shaking his head with disappointment at Dean's attitude.

"She couldn't have done that during the day, huh?" Dean said, looking over at the older hunter.

"I can do it whenever I damn well please, Dean Winchester. I'm not sure when you got the idea that you get to dictate my schedule but I can guarantee you that you do no such thing. I go where I please when I please and you do not get to say a thing to change that." she snapped, standing up and pointing at him defensively.

He looked taken aback at her sudden outburst.

"It doesn't work like that, Elena." he argued.

"Well then change the rules, Dean." She shot back.

They glared at each other for a moment.

"Okay, guys, I don't think this is the time for a fight. We gotta figure out how there is blood coming out of the plumbing." Sam said.

Elena sighed and turned away from Dean.

"It's 12:27. Whatever it is, it's still going on and shows no sign of stopping." She said, sitting back down.

"So, let's ask people what happened?" Sam suggested.

"I think they'll all tell us the same thing. They turned on the water and at exactly midnight, it turned to blood." Elena said.

All of the males' heads snapped to her.

"Water… into blood?" Dean said.

She looked up at him and nodded.

"Yeah." Elena said, realizing what they did.

"Like… uh… Exodus?" Bobby said, looking thoughtful.

"Well… it is the apocalypse." Dean shrugged.

"How do we know if it's the plagues or whatever?" Sam asked.

"Well, I guess we wait. There's nothing else to do." Dean suggested.

"Wait? Wait on the ten plagues of Egypt to develop?" Bobby asked.

"Well I think we should figure out if the water into blood thing happened everywhere or just at the hospital." Elena threw in.

"That's a good idea, one of you two idgits, go down to the police station and get information on that." Bobby instructed.

"I'll go." Sam said.

"No, I'll go." Dean decided, standing up and pulling his keys out.

"Dean, why can't I go?" Sam scoffed.

"Because I don't trust you with my baby. Now take care of them and the hospital." Dean said, turning to walk out.

Elena watched him go with narrowed eyes before turning to Bobby.

"So… what's the next plague?" she asked.

"Frogs." He said.

"Frogs?" Elena and Sam questioned at the same time.

"Yep." The older man nodded, looking less than impressed.

* * *

Elena's leg bounced nervously as the clock ticked closer to 1:00 A.M. The chaos that erupted from the water-blood thing had died down a bit but she felt that it was all about to pick up again.

"Do you need some morphine?" Bobby asked as she jumped up and began pacing.

"I don't like this." she said, glancing back at them.

"I don't think anyone does." Bobby replied.

"No, it's just… I know that… at some point… there's gonna be some freaking bugs!" she exclaimed, throwing her hands in the air.

"Well… maybe we're wrong. Maybe it'll just be the blood." Bobby said.

Elena was cut off from answering as Dean came back in.

"I went to the station. They said it didn't happen anywhere else. It was just…" the older Winchester was cut off by a loud croaking noise.

He stared at all of them with shock as they froze out of surprise.

"Was that… a frog?" He questioned.

Elena turned slowly to look at the clock to see that it was exactly 1:00. The noise sounded again and they turned to see a frog sitting in the doorway.

"It's staring at us." Elena said in a high voice, shifting to stand behind Bobby's wheelchair.

A scream erupted from the hallway followed by a few more.

"So… about those plagues." Bobby said as they saw several more frogs hop down the hallway.

"There's hundreds of them!" Someone screamed.

"Close the door!" Elena cried as they heard croaking from the hallway.

Sam darted forward and slammed the door shut. They all peeked through the blinds to see, sure enough, a hoard frogs hopping down the hallway as people ran away and stood on counters and chairs. One nurse was smacking at them with a clipboard as they attempted to leap up onto the chair that she was cowering on.

"I think we can safely say the ten plagues are upon us… in this hospital." Bobby nodded.

* * *

"This is happening in different hospitals all across the country." Sam said as he flipped through television stations.

"There seems to be a pattern to it. It starts on the hour and goes for thirty minutes before stopping. Then the next thing starts thirty minutes later." Elena said as she watched through the blinds as several animal control people were rounding up the frogs.

"How do we stop it?" Dean asked, turning to look at them.

"We don't." Bobby said.

They looked at him.

"It's the damn apocalypse, ya idgits. You can stop this just about as easy as they could stop it the first time it happened." He scoffed.

"The next two plagues are bugs. We may want to line the doors and windows with towels or something to keep them out." Bobby informed them after a few minutes of silence.

"Shouldn't we go warn everyone?" Elena asked.

"You don't think they've figured it out?" Dean said.

"If they haven't, they won't believe us if we tell them." Bobby threw in.

"Well we can still try. People are gonna start dying pretty soon. Isn't the last plague literally people dying?" Elena said.

They all exchanged wary glances.

"We need to get everyone out of the hospital instead of trying to barricade ourselves in. If we can get them away, it won't matter what happens."

"It's worth a try." Sam said, earning a grateful glance from Elena.

* * *

No one wanted to approach Elena once they regrouped in Bobby's room. She was sitting in the corner glaring at the clock, which was three minutes away from 2 AM. They had every single person they tried to convince laugh in their face. Doctors. Security guards. Even two police officers chuckled and sent them away, saying that it was all a coincidence at that the liquid coming out of the pipes had been rusty water, not blood.

"We gave it our best shot, Elena." Sam said reassuringly.

"We can't let these people stay here." She said, shaking her head.

"All right well we have a few plagues to convince these people of what's happening. Let them live through the hoard of flies and see if they are still so unwilling to believe." Bobby shrugged.

Elena shook her head and stood to help Sam and Dean block up the room so that, hopefully, no bugs would come in. They also blocked all of the drains and the air vents just in case. They heard the buzzing come and the screams began once again. None of them bothered to go to the window, all of them remaining in place and hoping that they would be protected against the bugs. Once it reached the 2:45 mark, the buzzing went away. Sam and Dean stood slowly, walking to the window to peek through it. A nurse was standing there looking confused and nothing looked wrong with anything. It had all disappeared just like the blood and the frogs eventually did. They opened the door cautiously to see the hallway was empty.

"It all disappeared." The nurse said, looking at Elena, Dean, and Sam with wide eyes as chaos continued to erupt around them.

"Are they evacuating yet?" Elena asked.

"No, we haven't gotten any official orders to evacuate. They think it's just a bad bug problem." She said, turning to walk off.

Elena sighed frustratingly.

"We need to get these people out of here. These plagues are gonna get worse and worse." She said desperately.

"How are we supposed to do that?" Dean questioned.

She turned to him and sighed.

"I don't know." Elena said, feeling a lot of weight on her shoulders.

"Yeah, exactly." He nodded, his voice icy as he spoke to her.

"Well I don't see you spouting out ideas!" she snapped, glaring at him.

"Well excuse me for being stumped by the freaking plagues happening every hour!" he growled back.

"Guys stop!" Sam said, getting between them. "This isn't helping anything." He said, steering them back into Bobby's room.

"What's next?" Elena asked, refusing to look at Dean as she addressed Bobby.

"Flies." He sighed.

"Great, more bugs." She said, shaking her head as she walked to the window to look outside at the dark sky.

"Yeah, we have about ten minutes." Sam said, looking up at the clock.

"You think they're gonna believe us after this one?" Dean questioned skeptically.

"They have to." Bobby said.

* * *

If she already didn't look horrible, Elena looked even worse when millions of flies began slamming into the windows of the hospital. It seemed like they were contained to the outside for some reason. Her face became pale and she backed away from the window as they hit it, turning it completely black. Screams filled the air, as normal, from outside the hospital room.

"I'm gonna be sick." She mumbled.

Like the other plagues, it ended around the half hour mark. Elena stood slowly and opened the door to see that there wasn't a single speck and that people were milling about looking panicked, as usual.

She looked back to see that the window was clear, all of the dead flies had disappeared. When she walked to it and looked down, she saw people streaming out of the hospital.

"I think that…" she began.

"Alert. Alert. Evacuate. Evacuate." A voice came over the intercom.

"It's about damn time." Dean groaned, standing up.

They turned to walk out, Sam pushing Bobby who was holding the remainder of the beers. Sharon ran up to them, looking flustered as she stopped them.

"We can't evacaute." She said, gesturing to the other people in wheelchairs.

"Why not?" Dean demanded.

"The elevators are shut down. There's no way to get out. We're on the tenth floor so we can't very well carry everyone down. They're trying to figure out what to do… but…" she said, looking horrified.

"Sharon… you know what's going on. You have the cross around your neck. We have to get out of here." Elena said desperately.

"There's nothing we can do. I'm sorry. You have to stay in your room until we figure it out." she said, looking sympathetic and fearful at the same time.

Elena looked at Dean and Sam with wide eyes. Once they retreated back to their room, Elena sighed and leaned against the wall, bending over and putting her hands on her knees.

"We have the worst luck." She lamented.

"Yeah, yeah we do." Sam agreed, sitting on Bobby's bed next to Dean.

"You should leave." Bobby said, turning to face them.

"What?" Elena asked, looking up at him.

"You three can walk down the stairs. You should go, get out of here." He urged them.

"Hell no, Bobby." Sam said, shaking his head.

"We're not leaving you here." Elena agreed.

"Don't be stupid. You shouldn't put yourself in danger like idgits." He snapped.

"We're not leaving you, Bobby!" Dean growled, finality in his voice that said this was the end of that conversation.

The older man glared around at them and shook his head.

"The next plague is cattle dying. I'm not entirely certain how that's going to affect us. Maybe cows are gonna wander in and die. Then the next one is boils. Not sure how there's any way of us avoiding that particular beauty. Then hail and thunder. That's easy enough to avoid, don't go outside. Then locusts…" Bobby turned to Elena, disgust on his face.

"Gross little creatures, they'll get all over you if they get into this room. Crawl on you and…" he cut off, satisfied by her horrified shudder.

"Then darkness. All right so the power goes out or something. You know what comes next? The death of the firstborn. You know how I imagine that? Every single firstborn person in this hospital's vicinity dying. And guess who happens to be firstborn. Oh that's right, you are, Dean. You too, Elena. I'm a firstborn. So it looks like Sam is the only one who makes it out of here alive. So you get your asses out of here, now!" Bobby shouted.

"No!" The three stubborn younger hunters yelled back at him.

* * *

Elena looked with a digusted look at the different piles of vomit in the hallway that the poor janitor was forced to clean up.

"See? Aren't you glad I brought you sandwiches now? I kept you from eating the cafeteria's mystery meat that just so happened to give everyone food poisoning for an hour." She said proudly, turning to smirk at Bobby who was still glaring around at all of them.

"I gotta give props to anyone who's controlling this. That was an… imaginative way… for them to do the cattle thing." Sam said, sitting on the floor.

"See if you're still smiling when boils come along." Bobby snapped as they all nodded with slight smiles.

They all sighed and retreated to their separate corners of the room.

"At least they got everyone else out." Elena said.

"Yeah." The two brothers nodded.

They all watched as the clock wound down and just waited for the screams to begin. None came and they exchanged wary looks.

"You don't think it just… stopped?" Elena wondered as they walked to the door hesitantly and pulled it open to see that the hallway was completely deserted.

"Oh my God! Help!" a cry rose.

"Nope, no it didn't." Sam said as they all ran in the direction of the cry.

They stopped in the doorway of a room to find a family crowded around an old man in a bed.

"What's wrong?" Elena asked.

"He just got these… things!" one woman screeched, moving out of the way so that they could see him.

They stared at him with wide eyes.

"Boils." Dean nodded.

"Definitely boils." Sam and Elena agreed.

They were covering his entire face and body from what they could see.

"Why aren't the rest of us affected?" Elena wondered as they walked down the hallway to peek into rooms.

"Well so far, we've only seen people over the age of sixty with them. So it only affects old geezers?" Dean suggested.

"Real nice way to put that, Dean." She snapped.

He turned to glare at her and opened his mouth to fire something back at her.

"Nope! No time for that!" Sam interrupted, grabbing their arms and steering them back to Bobby's room.

* * *

When they went back into the room and explained the situation to Bobby, he shrugged, not knowing what to say. None of them did. They were six plagues in with no sign of stopping and Elena looked as though she was about to pass out from exhaustion.

"Elena, do you want to lie down and try to sleep?" Sam asked hesitantly.

She turned to him and shook her head from where she was standing at the window, waiting for storm clouds to gather for the hail and thunder.

"Are you sure? You look like you're about to fall." Bobby informed her.

She sighed and shook her head.

"I'm fine." She snapped before turning to walk out of the room.

"Where are you going?" They all asked at once.

"I need a minute." She mumbled, walking out of the room.

The males exchanged looks before Dean followed her. He watched as she immediately slid into an empty patient room. When he walked in, he found her sitting on the bed facing the window.

"You wanna tell me what the hell is going on? Huh? The real reason you've been disappearing from the motel at all hours of the night? Why I've been wakin' up every night wondering where the hell you've gone and praying that you return in the morning?" he demanded.

He saw her shoulders move and thought that she was sighing until they moved again and then began shaking.

"Elena?" he said.

She let out a strangled noise and he ran to stand in front of her. Tears were streaming down her face as she sobbed heavily.

"No." she cried, pushing him away as he reached for her.

"I don't… I can't…" she cried, shaking her head.

"Elena, please tell me what's wrong. You're scaring me." he said desperately, grabbing her hands with a terrified face.

"I'm so tired!" she wailed.

He stared at her as she collapsed in his arms.

"I can't… I can't… I haven't slept since… Zachariah killed me. I keep seeing… every time I close my eyes…" she choked out between sobs as her body trembled violently in his arms.

"Hey, hey… shh." He said, sitting her on the bed again and pushing her face back, brushing her hair away and wiping the tears off of her face.

It didn't do much good as they kept coming.

"Hey, take a deep breath." He said.

The deep breath ended up as a wail and he sighed, pulling her to him and wrapping his arms around her.

"Calm down, Elena. Shh… I'm here." He said.

"I saw you dying! Over and over again! You and Sam! I think I was in hell!" she cried against his chest. "That was my hell, you dying. I couldn't stop it. I was frozen. I just kept seeing it and… it felt like it went on for days. Then I woke up and Cas was there and… I thought that I was still in hell and that I was never going to see you again!"

He didn't know what to say. He didn't know how to comfort her. He'd been to hell but his experience was totally different. He wondered if she was even in hell or if the angels had put her in that situation to torture her. Because there was no way that Elena would naturally go to hell. There was no possible way.

"I can't sleep… that's why I keep leaving. I can't sleep because I keep seeing you both dying in my mind when I try. So I stay awake but I'm afraid of being alone because I know that I'll think about it. That's why I come here with Bobby because it distracts me." she whimpered, her cries slowly diminishing.

He pulled her away and looked her in the eyes, this time able to dry up her tears for good.

"I'm sorry." Dean sighed, stroking her cheek as she stared at him with devastated eyes.

"I should have known better. I should have asked you instead of yelling at you. I was just afraid after… the thing with the doors. You've done it twice now. And the first time… your eyes." he said.

"What about my eyes?" she asked, confused.

"I thought maybe it was a trick or I was seeing things. When we were at the convent and you slammed those doors opened your eyes turned blue for a second." He said.

Elena stared at him with wide eyes.

"Why am I developing new powers now? I thought I was supposed to just have the healing and the super strength. Cas didn't tell me about anythin else. It doesn't make any sense." she wondered.

"No, it doesn't." he said, shaking his head.

Elena sighed and buried her head in his chest.

"Dean, you have to stop with the whole, 'I have know where you are at all times', thing." She mumbled.

He remained silent.

"I'm not saying that because I'm confident in my abilities to protect myself or anything. I'm not being cocky. I'm saying that because I'm a person. I'm an independent person who has spent eighteen years figuring out how to keep herself alive without your help. Sure, I might have failed once or twice but I've come back so far, haven't I?" she looked up at him to see him gritting his teeth.

"I know that you've lost people, Dean. I have too. And I recognize that, because of that, you want to keep the people you care about on a short leash but… I'm not a dog. I'm a person. A separate being and I need that reassurance sometimes. I need to feel like I can go on a walk or go see Bobby at the hospital without you flipping your shit out." Elena sighed, putting her hand on his cheek.

"I care about you too. I haven't asked for much but I'm asking for this. Please." She whispered.

"Can you promise that you'll return to me every time?" He asked, trying not to sound emotional but failing as his voice sounded rough with emotion.

His eyes flickered down to hers and she bit her lip and shook her head.

"I can't see the future, Dean. I can't ever promise that. I could slip and fall in the shower and not come back to you. But…" she took his face in her hands when he turned to look away from her, trying to hide his emotions.

"I can promise you that I will try like hell to come back to you every damn time. Nothing will get in the way of me trying to come back to you." she said honestly, looking up at him with honest eyes.

Dean stared at her with emotion filled eyes before his lips crashed down on hers. She responded in kind like she always did. They fell back onto the bed as they kissed. Lightning flashed through the window and they both looked over at it.

"The apocalypse." He sighed, letting his head fall to lie on her chest.

"Yeah." She said, leaning her head back as they continued to lie there.

Sam came running in a moment later.

"Oh! Sorry!" he said, clapping a hand over his eyes as he saw their position.

"It's all right, Sam. For once, you're not interrupting anything." Elena sighed with a slight smile.

"Well, just thought I'd let you know that we figured out something bad about the darkness plague." He said.

Elena and Dean jumped up and walked into Bobby's room, and the man himself was rolling back and forth nervously.

"Not that I'm not glad to see you two made up…" he said, looking at Dean and Elena's entwined hands. "… but we've got a problem. The power goes out, anyone who is hooked up life support is gone."

"No, Bobby they have a backup generator for that." Elena said.

"You really think that's gonna work? Whoever is controlling this, if anyone is controlling this, wants people dead, people are gonna die." He said.

They exchanged wary looks.

"So we have the rest of this hailstorm and the locusts to get everyone out of here." She sighed.

"Yeah, and then the darkness and then the firstborn slayings begin." Bobby said.

* * *

"Sharon you have got to listen to me…" Elena said desperately.

"What am I supposed to say, Elena? You have to get everyone hooked up to a life support unit out of here because when the power goes out in an hour and a half, the backup generator is going to fail and they're all going to die? Listen, we still have three floors full of people. This one and the two above us. They're trying to get us out as fast as they can but…"

Elena stopped her, remembering the listing of floors that was on the wall of the lobby.

"Wait a minute, two floors above us is the maternity ward." She said.

"Yeah, they can't just carry babies out. They've got to have a place to take them and the other hospitals are…" she was cut of when Elena turned to run off.

"… flooded!" she called, finishing her sentence.

* * *

"The hell do you mean, they haven't got the babies out?" Bobby snapped.

"They can't just carry them out of the hospital. Apparently there are regulations." Elena said, pacing angrily.

"God these people are stupid!" Dean said, slamming his foot into the wall.

"Screw regulations. I can't even imagine how many of those babies are firstborns. They are gonna die with the rest of us if we can't do something!" Bobby argued.

"Well what do we do? Carry them out ourselves?" Elena asked.

"No, but we can do something else. Something that might get us arrested if we get discovered." Dean said.

They all looked at him with a questioning look.

* * *

Elena sighed as they slipped onto the maternity ward.

"We're going to get caught." She hissed as they slipped into an empty hospital room and began piling all of the sheets and stuff together on the bed.

The pillows and the blankets and the couch cushions went there too. Sam lifted a can and poured the gas over it.

"I'm pretty sure that, if there is a fire found on the floor, babies must go. Now hurry. We have fifteen minutes before the locusts." Dean urged them.

When it was all piled together and doused in gasoline, Dean flicked a match on it and they scurried out of the room to hide. A fire alarm went off almost instantly and several nurses ran in the direction of the room to see that it was on fire.

"Get the babies out! Now! We can't have them in this hospital!" one of them screeched before turning back to run to the newborn baby room.

"Can't risk smoke inhilation." Dean said triumphantly.

"Look at you, all genius." Elena said with a grin, leaning in to kiss his cheek.

They stood to walk out and were stopped by a nurse.

"You have to help." She said desperately.

"Erm… what?" Sam asked.

"We need as many hands as possible to carry babies downstairs and outside to the waiting ambulances." She said, dragging them in the direction of the room.

They stared at each other with wide eyes, thankful that Sam left the can of gasoline back where they were hiding so that she wouldn't report them and have them arrested. They weren't the only non-medical people carrying babies. There were several other 'volunteers'. They all had a baby thrusted into their arms at the same time.

"Take the stairs. Take them slow. There is no need to rush." The head nurse instructed everyone.

"Yeah, tell that to the locusts." Dean said, staring down at the baby that he was holding awkwardly in his arms with a slight grimace.

They walked down the stairs slowly, one after another. Elena didn't waste any time before bonding with the alert baby in her arms.

"You are absolutely adorable. Yes you are." She murmured, grinning down at the little baby boy.

He gurgled and grinned at her as they walked into the lobby.

"Hey!" Dean said sharply, looking over at her baby with narrowed eyes as he stared up at Dean with wide eyes.

"No flirting with my woman!" he hissed.

The baby looked back at Elena and grinned again, much to her amusement.

* * *

When they reconvened in Bobby's room, they blocked off all of the vents and openings in the room once again.

"I swear to God, if a locust gets in here…" Elena said, shaking her head.

"We'll protect you." the three males assured her.

"You'd better or I'll kick all your asses." She threatened.

"That makes it seem much less chivalrous." Bobby informed him.

"I don't care." Elena said, shaking her head with wide eyes.

As they began hitting the windows again, Elena found herself wanting to throw up even worse than with the flies. The things were humongous. They turned on the television to try to distract Elena and found every station talking about the strange happenings in the hospitals. It turned out that it happened all over the world.

"You were right about the firstborn thing. Fifty-three people died in a hospital in London." Elena said sadly.

"We have got to get out of here." Dean said frustratingly.

Suddenly the locusts ceased pelting the windows.

"It's only been fifteen minutes." Elena said, confused.

Suddenly someone appeared in the room and they all sighed with relief.

"Thank God." Sam said.

"No, Castiel." The confused angel corrected him.

"I… I know who you are, Cas." Sam said, staring at him strangely.

"We have to get these people out of here." Elena said, walking to him.

"Yes, someone is working on it." he said.

"Someone?" Dean questioned.

He nodded, noticing their strange looks. Elena stared at him suspiciously before he reached out to take her hand.

"He wishes to speak to you." he said and she felt the transportation.

She whirled around, surprised, to find that she was on the roof of the hospital.

"I believe you have some questions for me." a voice said behind her and she turned to see Gabriel.

"I really wish that you guys would stop just whisking me places." She said, shaking her head.

"I know, it'll get so much easier when you learn how to do it yourself." He sighed.

Her head snapped up and she stared at him with wide eyes.

"Oh yeah, by the way, you've got some abilities that you don't know about." The archangel said with a cocky grin.

"Yeah well, can you make them stop? They're freaking me and everyone around me out. My eyes turned blue! And why didn't Castiel tell me about them?" she asked.

"Because… wait for it…" Gabriel paused for dramatic effect.

"He doesn't know!" he announced, sounding proud of himself.

"What? But… he's seen other guardians. He acted as though he knew all about them." Elena said, confused.

"Yeah, he does know all about guardians. But you, cupcake, are no ordinary guardian." The angel said, walking up to her with a grin as he shoved his hands into his pockets.

"What does that mean?"

"You were already supernatural before we made you a guardian. I saw such potential in you… well I couldn't help it really. Why do you think I begged for your continued existance? So that I would get the chance to simper at Michael's feet?" He said, shrugging.

"What do you mean, Gabriel?" Elena demanded.

"You, my darling, have angel DNA in you." he said, smirking at her.

* * *

**Author's Note: Wow, I really hate this chapter. I hope that you don't hate it but I do. There's some writing that I'm proud of and this is not one of them. But review please! Just be nicer to me than I am to myself, please! I considered throwing this entire chapter away but I really didn't want to do that. So sorry about the crappy chapter.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: I do not own TVD or Supernatural**

**Thanks to slayerdiaries, Thera-Rocklynn, Hollywood17, Dark Alana, Raven176, Nyssandria, LineChokor, TheElegantFaerie, Dark-Supernatural-Angel, RHatch89, xxPaige23xx, neontreeslover, DrawingMyHeartOut, diehardromantic, Icipriano, MelissaIsLame, Nicole0203, MrsMaeveSalvatoreMikaelson, DamonSalvatorelover789, and chiwi for reviewing!**

**I know that I always thank my reviewers but this time I am really thankful to all of you. I was really feeling crappy after writing that last chapter because I was convinced that it was horrible and that you would all hate it. Every single one of you made my day when you told me that you liked this chapter and I have been happy all day long because of it. So thank you so much. I love each and every one of you.**

**By the way, to everyone, if you have any ideas or things that you want, tell me in your review. Chances are I'll consider it and try to incorporate it into the story if I can. Don't be shy or hesitant. I am always open to new ideas as long as they go along with the story.**

**To add to that, if anyone has a relationship idea for Sam, cause I got nothing, let me know. We didn't celebrate making it to 400 reviews for Hells Bells so let's make that our celebration. Everyone tell me who they would like Sam to be with.**

* * *

**A few things:**

**1. All right, I've had a few people asking for Gabriel's view on Elena's life. So here's the deal, in the next few chapters, possibly the next chapter, I'll have an entire Gabriel/Elena centric chapter if that tickles your fancy. **

**2. Sorry, guys, but I'm fresh out of ideas for the plagues thing. I would rather end it than try to write more and tragically fail at it.**

**3. I know that some of you are calling for Zachariah's death. Sorry to disappoint but he'll be sticking around for a while and you'll probably hate him even more after this chapter.**

**4. Jo and Ellen are in this chapter! I'm only telling you this to warn you in advance. It's kind of confusing to write a chapter with Ellen and Elena in it. The names are really hard to separate when I'm writing. So if I get them swapped, I apologize in advance.**

* * *

**Music:**

**Spirit in the Sky – Norman Greenbaum**

**Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap – AC/DC (when Elena goes to save Sam)**

**Not – Cheyenne Marie Mizec (Sam leaving)**

* * *

Elena stared at Gabriel with wide eyes.

"What… I… what does that mean?" she asked hesitantly.

"Wouldn't you like to know?" he said, winking at her.

She glared at him, unamused by his lack of willingness to answer her questions when she actually asked them.

"Oh, by the way. I heard you whining on and on about those people who were stuck in the hospital. It just would not stop and… well I was get annoyed. So you'll be happy to know that they are all happily sitting outside the hospital with no idea how they got there and the day is saved." He said, smirking at her.

"Everyone except your boys, that is. They won't move a muscle until they know that you're safe. So…"

"Don't you dare! I demand an…" she watched as he snapped his fingers.

"… explanation!" her sentence finished as she appeared in Bobby's hospital room once again.

She whirled around, seeing Sam, Dean, Bobby, and Castiel standing there.

"Son of a bitch!" she snapped, huffing as she glared at Castiel.

"Where the hell did you go?" Dean asked.

"To the roof!" she said, pointing up.

Suddenly the lights all went off and they looked around with wide eyes.

"Guys… it's not time for the next plague yet." Elena said, thankful that the sun was streaming through the window so that they could see each other.

"Whatever is controlling this knows that we've gotten everyone out of the building. It knows that we are the only ones in harms way yet it is still continuing with its plan. That means that you were the original target." Cas said, turning to them.

"Something is after us?" Sam asked.

"Is that really much of a surprise?" Elena said.

The other three shrugged as Castiel walked forward. He took turns touching them and transporting them away individually. Elena was last, staring at him with wide eyes.

"What took you so long, Cas?" she asked worredly.

"There were barriers." He said simply, looking up at her with his striking blue eyes before taking her hand.

She looked up at him and suddenly his eyes widened.

"What's wrong?" she asked, wondering why they hadn't left the building yet.

He let out a choking noise and she put her hands on his face as it turned red.

"Cas?" she said, panicking.

"Elena, run." He gasped.

"No, what's wrong?" she demanded.

"He's coming. Run." He urged her, falling to his knees.

Elena dropped with him, alarmed when blood trickled out of his mouth. That was when she sensed someone else in the room.

"Oh it won't be necessary to run. You can't get away." The new addition said as she turned to look at him.

"Did you do this to the hospital?" she asked.

"Do you know how hard you are to get alone, Elena? It took getting a hospital evacuated. Pity." Zachariah informed her.

"People died! You didn't just do it to this hospital! There were hospitals everywhere!" she shouted.

"No, we did just do it to this hospital. It was simple enough to fake a newscast and all of these Internet stories that we knew you'd find." He shrugged.

"What do you want?" she said through gritted once it sunk in that they wanted to speak to her that badly.

"Just to give you an offer." The angel shrugged.

She stared at him.

"I'm not interested in anything you have to give me." she said, clenching her hand into fists as Castiel writhed in pain at her feet.

"Oh I don't think that's true." He said, smirking at her.

"Stop torturing him." she demanded, pointing at Cas.

"I don't think I'll do that, actually. He's pissed me off one too many times." Zachariah said.

"If you kill him, Daddy Dearest will just put him right back here." Elena reminded him.

"I know that. It's annoying, but I know it. So about that offer." He said, stepping forward.

"I already told you…" she began.

"Wait until you hear my terms." He interrupted her, holding up a hand.

She glared at him.

"Dean will be Michael's vessel. We want him to be Michael's vessel and what we want to happen almost always happens. Wait… what am I saying? What we want **always** happens." He said, chuckling lightly.

"Well you aren't getting what you want this time." Elena snapped.

"We'll see about that." Zachariah said.

"There is absolutely nothing that you can offer him or me that will change the fact that he will not be Michael's vessel."

"How about your continued ability to remain together?" he asked.

Elena squinted at him.

"You have ninety days, Elena. That's three months… to convince him to say yes to Michael." Zachariah said, entirely serious.

She stared at him, her blood running cold as his words echoed in her mind.

"And if I don't?" she said, her voice holding strength that she didn't know she had.

"Straight to the point. If, at the end of those ninety days, he still says no… well I'm afraid that those few minutes of hell that I showed you when I killed you in the storage room will be nothing compared to what I put you through when you fail me."

Elena mustered up all of the strength she had and glared at him.

"You're a bastard, you know that?" she snapped.

"Oh I've been told. Have a nice day, now." Zachariah said, grinning at her before disappearing.

She stared at the spot where he was standing before she turned to Cas to help him up. Her hand quickly went to his mouth to wipe the blood from it.

"Elena." he caught her hand, staring at her with his wide, soulful eyes.

She looked back, trying to keep her emotions at bay.

"You can't tell them." She whispered.

He looked at her with a hesitant look as though he was unwilling to comply with that request.

"Please, Cas." She murmured pleadingly.

"Elena… they will want to know." He said.

"I don't care. They can't know this. Dean will do something reckless and Sam will go along with it. Even Bobby'll try to do something. They don't think before they act. They can't defeat Zachariah. Not right now. Please, you cannot tell them."

He stared at her for a moment before he sighed and pulled away from her helping hands.

"There will be consequences." Cas warned her.

"There always are." She said softly.

* * *

It took two hours to get the hospital cleared to open again. In that time, the patients were taken to another hospital and set up in the waiting rooms to wait. When they were cleared to go back, they literally loaded Bobby into the Impala and drove him back before setting him up in his room again. As soon as he was in his room, he stopped speaking again and Elena knew that the case had distracted him from the fact that he couldn't walk but now it occurred to him and he didn't want to face it.

"We got to cheer him up. Maybe I'll give him a backrub." Dean said, walking up to Elena and Sam as they stood at his door and the hospital bustled around them as it got back to normal.

"Dean." Sam sighed, shaking his head.

"Well, what, then?" Dean asked, looking at them for help.

"Look... we might have to wrap our heads around the idea that Bobby might not just bounce back this time." Sam said, trying to sound as quiet as he could.

There was silence for a few moments and Elena looked down at the envelope in Dean's hands.

"What's in the envelope?" she asked.

"The films from when I went to radiology a few days ago." he said, pulling the contents out. "Got some glamour shots."

Her and Sam leaned over the films once Dean handed them over. There were strange markings all over his ribs.

"Let's just say the doctors are baffled." He said.

"Holy crap." Sam murmured.

"Yeah, well, Cas carved you one, too." Dean said to both of them.

"And Bobby. We couldn't have them finding him." Elena said.

That wasn't the only reason. Zachariah had managed to find Elena because Bobby wasn't protected.

Suddenly Elena's phone rang and she pulled it out with a confused look.

"Hello?" she said, not recognizing the number.

"Where are you?" the voice on the other end was far too recognizable.

"Cas?" she questioned.

"Speak of the devil." Dean commented.

"Yes. Where are you?" the angel repeated.

"Back at the hospital. Why? What are you… Cas?" she said when a dial tone reached her ear.

She hung up, staring at the brothers with a quizzical look. A nurse and a doctor rushed past them with a piece of equipment on a cart and Cas appeared behind them, walking up to them.

"Cell phone, Cas? Really? Since when do angels need to reach out and touch someone?" Dean asked, looking him up and down.

Cas' eyes flashed to Elena before going back to Dean.

"You're hidden from angels now… all angels. I won't be able to simply…"

"Enough foreplay." Bobby interrupted.

They all looked over at him.

"Get over here and lay your damn hands on." the older hunter instructed.

They all remained silent and he looked over his shoulder at Castiel.

"Get healing. Now." Bobby snapped.

"I can't." Cas said quickly.

Bobby turned his chair to face Castiel, narrowing his eyes.

"Say again?" he demanded.

The angel sighed and walked to Bobby.

"I'm cut off from heaven and much of heaven's power. Certain things I can do. Certain things I can't. I would suggest that Elena try, because I'm beginning to doubt the limits on her abilities, but I am almost positive that Zachariah would have made it impossible for you to be healed by anything other than an angel." Cas explained.

"You're telling me you lost your mojo just in time to get me stuck in this trap the rest of my life?" Bobby growled.

"I'm sorry." He sighed.

"Shove it up your ass." he turned to face the window, falling silent once again.

Dean turned to look at Sam and Elena.

"At least he's talking now." He shrugged.

"I heard that." Bobby called, glaring back at Dean.

Castiel walked back over to them with a wary expression.

"I don't have much time. We need to talk." He said.

"Okay." Dean said, nodding.

"Your plan to kill Lucifer."

"Yeah. You want to help?" Dean asked, perking up a bit.

"No. It's foolish. It can't be done." Castiel said, shaking his head.

"Oh. Thanks for the support." The older Winchester said, rolling his eyes.

"But I believe I have the solution. There is someone besides Michael strong enough to take on Lucifer. Strong enough to stop the apocalypse." He informed them.

"Who's that?" Sam asked.

"The one who resurrected me and put you on that airplane. The one who began everything… God."

Sam and Dean looked at the angel skeptically as Elena looked interested.

"I'm gonna find God."

Dean stared at him for a moment before turning to close the door.

"God?" he said as he turned back.

"Yes." Cas nodded.

"God." He repeated.

"Yes! He isn't in heaven. He has to be somewhere." Cas said, sounding hopefully.

"Try New Mexico. I hear he's on a tortilla." Dean asked, sarcasm heavy in his voice.

"No, he's not on any flatbread." Cas said, shaking his head as he didn't understand that Dean wasn't serious.

"Listen, Chuckles, even if there is a God, he is either dead… and that's the generous theory…" Dean began.

"He is out there, Dean." Cas said confidently.

"… or he's up and kicking and doesn't give a rat's ass about any of us." He finished.

Castiel glared at him, making Dean look taken aback.

"I mean, look around you, man. The world is in the toilet. We are literally at the end of days here, and he's off somewhere drinking booze out of a coconut. All right?" he explained.

"Enough." Cas snapped, sounding frustrated and offended. "This is not a theological issue. It's strategic. With God's help, we can win."

"It's a pipe dream, Cas." Dean scoffed, shaking his head.

Suddenly the angel began advancing on the hunter as Sam and Elena watched warily and Bobby still refused to look at any of them.

"I killed two angels this week. My brothers. I'm hunted. I rebelled. And I did it, all of it, for you, and you failed. You and your brother destroyed the world…" Cas said, his eyes flickering over to Sam.

The younger brother looked down ashamedly.

"Cas!" Elena sighed, trying to get him to stop and failing.

"… and I lost everything, for nothing. We could still lose more than everything." His eyes flickered to Elena this time and it was her turn to shift her eyes away from them, knowing what he meant.

"So keep your opinions to yourself." He said to Dean, who looked shocked and a little ashamed.

"You didn't drop in just to tear us a new hole. What is it you want?" Bobby finally said, turning around.

"I did come for something. An amulet." Cas said, backing away from Dean and looking at the wheelchair-bound hunter.

"An amulet? What kind?" he asked.

"Very rare. Very powerful. It burns hot in God's presence. It'll help me find him."

"A God EMF?" Sam qustioned.

Castiel nodded as his eyes shifted around the room to the four others.

"Well, I don't know what you're talking about. I got nothing like that." Bobby shrugged.

"I know. You don't." Cas said, looking at Dean before dropping his gaze to Dean's amulet and back up.

"What, this?" Dean asked, pointing at the thing around his neck.

"May I borrow it?" he asked.

"No." Dean snapped, backing away.

"Dean. Give it to me." Cas said, narrowing his eyes dangerously.

Elena watched with a sad expression as Dean fell silent, looking conflicted and sad himself. She knew the story of the amulet. That Sam gave it to them when they were children. It was important to him. Finally he lifted the amulet over his head and handed it over unwillingly.

"All right, I guess." He mumbled.

When Castiel reached out for it, he yanked it back.

"Don't lose it." he warned the angel.

Castiel simply stared at him before he took it away.

"Great. Now I feel naked." Dean sighed, leaning into Elena's touch when she rubbed his arm soothingly.

"I'll be in touch." Cas said.

Dean nodded, glancing at Sam. When he looked back, Cas was gone and Sam sighed heavily along with the rest of them.

"When you find God, tell him to send legs!" Bobby yelled, making them shake their heads.

"I don't know about you, but I can tell that Elena is about to pass out from exhaustion. We should go get some sleep." Dean said, gathering her into his arms as she swayed on the spot.

"We'll be back, Bobby." Sam said as they turned to walk out the door.

"Yeah whatever, idgits." They heard him growl.

Almost as soon as they got back to the motel room, they didn't bother to take off their clothing. Elena could barely muster up the energy to slide off her boots before collapsing onto the bed on top of the blankets. Dean immediately fell beside her and she curled in him, her back against his chest.

"Goodnight, Dean. Goodnight, Sam." She mumbled.

"Goodnight." They both answered softly before they all went to sleep at once.

* * *

Bobby stared down at his phone as it rang, finally pressing talk and holding it up to his ear.

"Hello?" he said.

"Bobby. Bobby, damn it, can you hear me?" Rufus' voice was breaking up almost inaudibly.

"I can't hear you." he replied, not missing the panic in the hunter's voice.

"Listen. I'm gonna need a little help here. Seems I'm up to my ass in demons. Whole damn town's infested. Hang on, hang on…" he said, his voice crackling and Bobby heard gunfire in the background.

"Where are you?" he demanded.

"Riv… ss… Col… rado.

"Colora—Colorado?" Bobby questioned.

"Colorado!" Rufus shouted. "River Pass!"

"Rufus? You there? Ruf… Rufus?" Bobby yelled into the phone.

"Bobby, it's…" he cut off and Bobby heard gunfire just before the phone went dead.

Bobby sighed and shook his head before he began dialing, regretting the fact that he had to wake up Elena, Dean, and Sam after they'd only left the hospital two hours ago.

* * *

They were awoken by the annoying ringing of a cell phone that emanated from Dean's pocket. Elena sighed and sat up along with the brothers, pushing her hair out of her face.

"I'm gonna go change before we have to go. My clothes still have blood on them." She said, looking down at the spatters on her jeans and jacket.

She took a very quick shower before climbing out and throwing clothing on. She came out ten minutes after walking, her hair in one long braid over her shoulder and zipping her jacket up.

"A hunter is in trouble in River Pass, Colorado." Dean explained as they rushed around the room packing everything up.

"Will Bobby be all right?" she asked.

"Yeah, I think he'll be fine." Sam said.

* * *

Elena looked around the road as they came to a stop on a bridge. They climbed out of the car and walked to the edge of the bridge. The rest of it was broken off, stones crumbled into the river. Dean kicked a rock over the edge and sighed heavily.

"This is the only road in or out." he said.

Sam pulled his cell phone and held it up and Elena did the same.

"No signal." He announced.

"Same here." Elena said, putting her phone back in her pocket.

"Rufus was right. Demons got this place locked down." Dean said, turning around to walk back to the Impala.

"Looks like we're hiking in." Sam said as they followed him.

"And the hits just keep on coming." Dean said, sounding frustrated.

They walked to the trunk, opening it to pull out weapons. Elena was given the demon-killing knife once again and she slid it into her boot. Then she grabbed a handgun and slid it into the waistband of her skirt and a shotgun to carry. Dean grabbed his own handgun and put it in his pants before taking his favorite sawed off gun. Sam pulled out a shotgun and a knife of his own that he stuck in a sheath on his belt. Both of the boys slung bags of more supplies over their shoulders and then Dean slammed the trunk closed and locked the Impala before they turned to walk into the town.

* * *

Elena walked between Sam and Dean down the street as they scanned the area carefully. It was deserted. There was glass everywhere and several flipped cars on the street ahead of them. As they passed them, Sam and Dean peeked into them to see if there were any people in them. Elena kept casting her eyes around as they did so, watching for any signs of life as she clutched her shotgun close to her body. They could hear music faintly and decided to follow it all the way to what looked like a town square. It turned out to be coming from another car. It's engine was running and the door was wide open. 'Spirit In the Sky' was playing at top volume.

Sam and Dean approached the car, guns ready, and Elena followed them. When they noticed that it was empty as well, Sam reached in and turned the engine of and silence fell. Elena looked around and sighed. As they continued to walk, they noticed a gleaming class red Mustang parked outside of the justice building. Dean whistled impressively as he admired it and Sam lost interest in the car once they realized that it was empty. They came to a gas station that had a few cars in front of it and blood staining the asphalt. Suddenly they heard a gun cock and they whirled around, all pointing their guns at the source. A woman stood there pointing one at them as well. When she squinted at them for a moment, she looked surprised.

"Ellen?" Sam asked, watching as she drew closer.

Elena's eyes flashed to them as she realized that they seemed to know the woman.

"Hello, boys." She said, lowering her gun slowly.

Dean glanced at Sam and then Elena before looking back at her.

"Ellen, what the heck's going on here?" Dean demanded.

Suddenly the woman splashed him in the face and raised her gun quickly. Dean blinked his eyes and remained still for a moment, letting it sink that he wasn't a demon.

"You know we can't be possessed, right?" he asked.

"Yeah? Why's that?" she countered, raising an eyebrow.

They both pulled their shirts aside to reveal their tattoos.

"That's not a bad idea." The woman, Ellen, said, lowering her gun.

"What about your little girl here?" she asked, looking over at Elena, who glared at her.

"Elena, you can lower the gun." Dean assured her.

"Are you sure? Have you checked her out? Because she seemed surprised to see your tattoos so I'm pretty sure she doesn't have one of her own. She hasn't given you any indication that she's not a demon. Not a little girl, by the way." Elena snapped.

Ellen smirked and backed away slightly.

"I'm beginning to see that. Where's that trusty knife of yours?" she asked.

Elena reached down and slid it out of her boot before holding it up.

"What the hell makes you think I'll give it to you?" she asked.

"Elena…" Dean began.

"No, let her test me, Dean. It's a shame you two boys aren't doing it." Ellen said, narrowing her eyes at them.

She held out her hand to Elena and cocked an eyebrow at her.

"Go on, girl. See if I flicker." She urged her.

Elena walked forward and touched the knife to her hand, pressing it down so that it nicked her skin. Nothing happened and she drew away.

"Satisfied?" Ellen asked as she slid the knife back into her boot.

"Very." Elena replied.

"Let's get inside." she said, leading them to a church.

When they got to the door, it opened to reveal a line of salt across the doorway with a devil's trap directly behind. They all walked across the line with no problem and Ellen turned back with a smile.

"Real glad to see you boys." She said emotionally, hugging Sam first and then Dean.

When she pulled away, she punched Dean in the face. Elena flinched and held herself back from defending him from the woman because he wasn't in any real danger.

"The can of whoopass I ought to open on you." Ellen snapped.

"Ow!" Dean complained.

"You can't pick up a phone? What are you, allergic to giving me peace of mind? I got to find out that you're alive from Rufus?" she demanded.

"Sorry, Ellen." The brothers said at the same time, looking ashamed.

"Yeah, you better be. You better put me on speed dial, kid." Ellen said, narrowing her eyes at Dean.

"Yes, ma'am." Dean nodded, his eyes flashing to Elena.

Ellen looked back at her as well.

"Who is this?" she questioned, looking back at the brothers.

"This… is Elena Gilbert. And she can speak for herself." she spoke up.

Ellen turned to look at her with a raised eyebrow.

"Well, Elena Gilbert… whoever you are… I like you already." Ellen said, smiling.

Elena stared at her for a moment.

"Ellen Harvelle." She said, holding out her hand.

"Nice to meet you." Elena said, gripping her hand as she shook it.

"Now where in the hell did you boys manage to find a fine girl like this? I know she wasn't attracted to your style." She said with a grin as she turned to the brothers.

"She found us, actually." Dean said, looking at Elena with that look that he always looked at her.

Ellen looked between Dean and Elena as they smiled slightly at each other. Their shared looks were gone instantly and they were back to their hardened expressions.

"What's going on, Ellen?" Dean asked as they walked further into the church.

"More than I can handle alone." The woman replied.

"How many demons are there?" Sam questioned.

"Pretty much the whole town, minus the dead people and these guys." She said, turning back at a closed door to look at them.

"So, this is it, right? End times?" she asked.

The three exchanged wary looks.

"It's got to be." she said.

"Seems like it." Sam said vaguely, unwilling to talk about it any further.

Ellen sighed and turned, knocking on the door.

"It's me!" she announced.

There was a beat of silence and then the door opened to reveal a man holding a shotgun in front of a room of people including a pastor, an old woman, a young man with his arm around a pregnant woman, and a few other people. In total, when Sam, Dean, and Elena walked in there, was fourteen people. The man who opened the door closed before he turned to face him, narrowing his eyes at the new arrivals.

"This is Sam, Dean, and Elena. They're hunters. Here to help." Ellen explained.

"You guys hip to this whole demon thing?" the man who let them in asked.

"Yeah. Are you?" Dean asked, looking around at the group.

"My wife's eyes turned black. She came at me with a brick. Kind of makes you embrace the paranormal." Another man said, bringing his hand to his chin and looking down as if he was contemplating his ring.

"All right, catch us up." Dean said, turning to Ellen.

"I doubt I know much more than you. Rufus called. Said he was in town investigating omens. All of a sudden, the whole town was possessed. Me and Jo were nearby…"

"You're hunting with Jo?" Dean interrupted her, sounding surprised as Elena wondered who this Jo person was.

"Yeah, for a while now. We got here, and the place… well, the place was like you see it. Couldn't find Rufus, then me and Jo got separated. I was out looking when I found you." Ellen explained.

"Don't worry, we'll find her." Dean said, surprising Elena with referring to 'Jo' as a girl.

"Either way, these people cannot just sit here." Sam said, startling the pregnant woman as the man who talked about his wife continued to play with his ring.

Elena stared around the room suspiciously, feeling like something was off but unable to put her finger on it.

"We got to get them out now." Dean said.

"No, it's not that easy. I've been trying. We already made a run for it once." Ellen said.

"What happened?" Sam asked.

"There used to be twenty of us." She replied.

"Well, there's four of us now…" Dean said.

"You don't know what it's like out there. Demons are everywhere. We won't be able to cover everybody." Ellen sighed, leaning against a table as she gestured around.

Elena noticed that the pregnant woman looked particularly nervous.

"What if we called Cas? On the phone?" She asked.

Sam and Dean looked at her thoughtfully as Ellen and everyone else looked confused.

"Nah, he's on his Daddy hunt. I doubt he'd have time to help us." Dean said.

Elena sighed and rubbed her forehead, wishing that she didn't have those Enochian sigils so that Gabriel could find her.

"What if we get everyone guns?" Sam suggested.

"What, are you gonna arm up baby bump over here?" Dean said, gesturing to the woman.

"More salt we can fire at once, more demons we can keep away." Sam shrugged.

Dean glanced at him and then over at the pastor.

"There's a sporting goods store we passed on Main on the way in. I bet they got guns." He said, dropping his bag at the same time as Sam.

"All right. You stay. We'll go." Sam said to everyone else.

"What about…" Ellen began.

"If Jo and Rufus are out there, we'll bring them back." Sam said.

Dean turned to Elena.

"You should stay here." He said, reaching out to take her hand.

"No, I should go with you." she argued, shaking her head.

"Elena, we can handle ourselves. These people need you. You and Ellen are better working together than you are apart. There's no guarantee that demons won't figure a way into this place." he said softly, pulling her to him.

Elena stared up at him with wide eyes.

"I don't like it." she whispered.

"I know." He said, pressing a kiss to her forehead.

"Take this." she said, pulling the knife out and handing it to Sam before they turned to walk out the door as the man opened it.

* * *

"Whoa whoa whoa whoa. Hold on." Dean said, holding up his hand as him and Sam got to the bottom of the stairs. "Why don't I just go?"

"No!" Elena argued.

"What? Alone?" Sam asked.

"Well, yeah. Somebody's got to stay here and start giving them Shotgun 101." Dean said.

"Yeah. Ellen and Elena." Sam nodded.

"No no no. It's gonna go a lot faster if you stay and help, okay?" he said.

"While you go get guns and salt and look for Jo and Rufus? That's stupid." The younger brother scoffed.

"I can handle it." Dean said.

Sam suddenly paused, realizing what Dean was saying.

"You don't want me going out there." he said, nodding.

"I didn't say that." Dean denied it weakly.

"Around demons."

"I didn't say that." he repeated, sounding frustrated.

"Fine, then let's go." Sam snapped, turning to head up the stairs.

* * *

Elena sighed as she leaned against a table and set her gun against it.

"We should probably start teaching these people how to handle these things." Ellen suggested, walking up to her.

"Sure they aren't going to shoot us with salt?" Elena mumbled, looking down at her shoes.

"Maybe we should start 'em out with makin' salt rounds." Ellen suggested, smiling slightly.

Elena chuckled once and nodded, walking to the bags to pull them open and pull out supplies. The man who worked the door kneeled next to her to help you.

"You really a hunter? Cause you don't look it." he commented, his eyes catching on her blue-jean skirt.

"Nope, I'm an eighteen-year-old girl who has an obsession with guns and boys in Impalas." She said snarkily, raising an eyebrow at him in an attempt to get his eyes off of her body.

"So you are a hunter?" he asked with a slight smile, impressed by her quick wit.

"I guess you could call me that." she said, shoving the canisters of salt in his hands before she grabbed the other supplies and stood.

"What else should I call you?" he questioned, following her.

"You could always just call me Elena." she said over her shoulder before spilling the supplies onto the table in front of everyone.

"All right, everyone, we're making salt rounds to shoot the demons with when we make a run for it again." Ellen announced, leaning over the table as everyone sat around it.

"Why are we making a run for it again?" the guy with the ring asked.

"Because if we don't, we're sitting ducks." Elena informed him, laying out the supplies as she spoke.

"And if we leave, even more of us will be killed." Another man argued.

"So what? You're just gonna hole up here for the rest of your lives? Is this girl gonna have her baby on the floor? Or in the bathroom? What about food? I don't see much around here. Staying here isn't an option." Elena said.

"Hmm… couldn't have said it better myself." Ellen said with a smirk.

"What's your name?" Elena asked the door man as Ellen instructed them on how to make salt rounds.

"Austin." He replied.

"Nice to meet you." she said, handing him salt.

"You're not much of a chatter, are you?" he asked as she turned to talk to the pregnant woman and who looked like her fiance.

"Nope." She replied, bending over and beginning her instruction on the guns.

* * *

"I'll get more salt. You get the guns." Sam said, pointing at a Quick-Mart.

"We'll go together." Dean refused.

"Dean, it's right there. Can we at least do this like professionals?" Sam scoffed.

Dean watched him go unwillingly before turning to walk to the sporting goods store.

* * *

After collecting the guns, Dean quickly rushed over to the Quick-Mart. When he walked in, he thought it was a little too quiet.

"Sammy?" he called, walking forward.

He rounded the corner to see bodies on the floor, having been exorcises. Sam was holding the knife and blood was dripping off of it and all over his hands. Dean stared at him warily before suggesting that they head back to the church.

* * *

When a hand came down on the door once more, Elena looked up to see Austin walk over and look through the peephole. He opened it and Dean and Sam came through looked relatively unscathed, causing her to sigh with relief. When they produced the guns, they immediately began to instruct everyone on how to work them. Elena went to sit with Roger, the guy with the ring, to teach him. Each time he messed up with his shaking hands, she assured him that everything was all right patiently and showed him again how to do it. Once he finally got it down, she turned to see Sam demonstrating loading a shotgun for the pregnant woman and her fiance. Dean turned to Austin and handed him a rifle.

"You know your way around a gun at all?" he asked as Elena walked up to them.

They watched as Austin expertly disassembled the rifle.

"Hmm… where'd you serve?" Dean asked, sounding vaguely impressed.

"Fallujah. Two tours. Got back a little over a year ago. Takes one to know one. Where'd you serve?" Austin asked with a slight smile.

"Hell." Dean deadpanned.

Austin snorted, amused, as Elena stared at Dean, less amused.

"No, seriously." The man said.

"Seriously. Hell." Dean said.

Austin stared at him for a moment before looking at Elena.

"Is he serious?" he questioned.

"Demons exist." She shrugged before turning away.

"So… how long have you been a hunter, Elena?" Austin asked as he went to work putting the rifle back together.

Elena looked over at him.

"How long have you been a flirt, Austin?" she replied.

"All my life." he shrugged, turning to grin at her.

"Hmm…" Elena said.

Her eyes flickered to Dean to see him looking back and forth between them, an unamused look on his face.

"Sorry to disappoint, Austin. But I don't usually flirt during a case." She said.

"Well you've never been on a… case… with me." he said, turning to face her.

Dean let out a snort and they turned to look at him before Elena smirked and turned back to Austin.

"Well I suppose that I can make an exception." She sighed, not missing the way Dean's eyes went wide.

A slow grin spreaded across Austin's face.

"That's all I'm sayin'." He said happily.

Elena smiled back before easing her way around the table to Dean, keeping eye contact with the ex-soldier. When she reached him, she finally looked away from Austin and up into Dean's eyes.

"Hi." She said softly, smiling up at him.

"Hey." He replied, looking down at her with a slight smirk.

"So… this is my flirting." She shrugged, looking down at her hands before looking up at him through her eyelashes.

"Mmm… not bad." He shrugged, bending down to press a kiss to her lips.

She leaned up on her toes and threw her arms around his shoulders, kissing him back.

"_You have ninety days, Elena."_

She jerked away as Zachariah's words echoed through her head. Dean looked down at her with concern and she forced her mouth into a smile.

"Not bad at all." She agreed, nodding as her heart pounded.

Elena turned to see Austin standing there. It was his turn to be unamused. She shrugged and smiled before catching sight of Sam in the corner looking melancholy. She frowned out of concern. Turning to look at Dean, she gestured to Sam and he sighed.

"I noticed." He nodded.

She shook her head.

"Come on." she urged him, grabbing his hand and leading him over to his brother.

"Hey." She said softly as she sat next to Sam.

"Hey." Sam said, looking up at them before looking back down at his hands.

Dean squatted in front of Elena and looked up at Dean.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"It's just...at the store. Those demons were possessing teenagers. I mean, I had to slit some kid's throat." He said.

"Come on, Sam, you had to." Elena said.

"I know. I just... it used to be like..." he sighed, pausing as he gathered his thoughts. "I just wish I could save people like I used to." He admitted.

"What, you mean when you were all hopped up on demon blood?" Dean asked, sounding harsher than he meant to.

"I didn't say that." Sam mumbled.

Elena opened her mouth to say something but a shadow fell over them and interrupted their talking.

"I'll be back." Ellen said.

"Where you going?" Dean asked.

"I can't sit here on my ass. My daughter's out there somewhere. I'm not back in half an hour, go. Get these people out of here." She said, gesturing around to everyone.

The brothers stood up, ready to protest.

"No, wait. I'll go with you." Sam offered.

"Whoa, hold on. Can I talk to you for a second?" Dean said, dragging Sam off.

Elena remained back with Ellen.

"You're gonna go out there again?" Dean hissed once they were outside of the room.

"Well, crap doesn't hit the fan with coffee breaks." Sam shrugged.

"I'll go." the older brother said, shaking his head.

"It's fine. Just stay here, get 'em ready. I'll cover Ellen." Sam said simply.

"Why's it got to be you?" Dean demanded.

"Oh, that's right, I forgot. You think I'll take one look at a demon and suddenly fall off the wagon, as if, after everything, I haven't learned my lesson."

"Well, have you?"

Elena looked out to see Sam slam Dean into the wall. She immediately broke away from Ellen to pull them apart.

"If you actually think I…" Elena pulled Sam off of Dean before he could finish the sentence, staring between them with questioning eyes.

Sam shook his head before walking back into the room without saying another word.

* * *

"So where'd you see her last?" Sam asked as he and Ellen walked down the road.

"Up ahead. So what's up with you and Dean?" Ellen asked without wasting any time.

Sam looked over at her before looking back at the road.

"It was hard not to notice, how different things are between you guys these days." She informed him.

He continued to remain silent so she continued to speak.

"Lot of bad road there, huh? What happened? Some girl come between you or something? Is it that Elena girl? I mean, I saw you lookin' at her with that… tender sort of look." Ellen said.

"Elena? God no. She's like a little sister. Just… stresses of the job. You know how it is. Kind of surprised, you and Jo hunting. Weren't you always saying she couldn't hack the life?" he asked, turning to her as he tried to change the subject.

"She can't. But if she's gonna do it anyway…"

"… you want to keep an eye on her." Sam nodded.

He looked down the street to see smoke rising out of a house.

"Hey." He pointed at it.

"Is that a chimney going?" Ellen asked.

"Looks like it. Come on." Sam said, walking towards it with her.

They hid behind a large tree and peered around it to see a black-eyed demon in there pacing in front of a fire.

"Guess we found base camp." Ellen said.

"Demons don't get cold. Makes you wonder what they're burning." Sam said.

They started to go around the tree when Ellen was grabbed from behind. Sam whirled around and slammed his gun into a demon's temple as another one pinned Ellen to the ground.

"Don't move, you evil skank!" Jo shouted as Rufus grabbed Sam's gun and began whacking him with it.

Sam slammed him up against the tree and Jo let go of Ellen to help Rufus with Sam. Ellen darted forward and Jo slammed her into the ground once more as her eyes went black.

"Don't you hurt her, don't you…" Ellen began, panicking.

"Give me my mom back, you black-eyed bitch!" Jo shouted, cutting her off.

Ellen shoved Jo off of her and slammed the butt of her rifle into her head.

"Ellen! Run!" Sam said as he got the upper hand on a black-eyed Rufus.

Suddenly Jo jumped up as Ellen ran away and her rifle slammed into Sam's head. He collapsed to the ground and they stared down at him.

"Got you now, you bastard." Rufus snapped.

* * *

Sam groaned as he woke up. When he saw that he was in the house with the fire burning, he sat up and began to struggle with the binds that were holding him to the chair. He looked to see Jo and Rufus standing there, both with black eyes. Jo was holding a jug of water.

"Uh-uh. No way you're getting out of those. Did you up myself. You're stuck right where I want you, you evil son of a bitch." Rufus snapped, backhanding him before Jo splashed him in the face with the water.

They looked at him, confused, as he didn't react to it at all. Suddenly Rufus grabbed Sam's hair and yanked, forcing his head back.

"No, wait, wait, wait." Sam pleaded as Jo put down the jug and picked up a cannister of salt.

"Just, just wait." He said.

Jo handed the salt to Rufus and he began to pour it into Sam's mouth.

"Exorcisamus te, exorcisamus te, omnis satanica…" he began to recite.

"Stop!" Sam choked.

"… omnis immundum…"

"Please!" he begged.

* * *

Elena watched as Dean paced. She was sitting with the pregnant woman and her fiance around the table with everyone else.

"The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He layeth me down in green pastures, and he raiseth me up again. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil." The pastor murmured.

Suddenly someone pounded on the door, startling everyone. Dean ran to it and opened it to reveal only Ellen coming in.

"Where's Sam?" Dean demanded as Elena stood with a panicked expression.

Ellen shook her head and walked to the table, grabbing one of the holy waters and drinking it to reassure everyone that she was human.

"They took him? Demons took him? Oh my god. What if they're in here? The demons?" the pregnant woman, Alicia, cried in a panicked voice.

"Could they get in?" the pastor asked, staring up at Dean and Elena.

"No." Dean said simply, grabbing a shotgun as he headed for the door.

Elena made to follow him, grabbing her own gun and shoving the demon-killing knife into her boot once again. Dean hesitated at the door and turned back.

"We can't leave them." He said, gesturing to the helpless looking people who were depending on them.

Elena looked back at them before looking at him.

"They need you, not me." she said, shaking her head.

"Elena…" he said, stopping her as she tried to walk past.

"I'm going, Dean. It's your turn to take care of the children." She snapped, pissed off that Sam was taken by demons when she wasn't watching him.

"They're at the house with the smoking chimney!" Ellen called as she pushed past him and walked out the door, not missing Dean's sigh of exasperation.

"Okay, we need to get a plan together. Tell me everything." She heard him say before someone closed the door and he was cut off.

* * *

"Please! Come on!" Sam pleaded as they continued to try to exorcise him of a demon that wasn't there.

"… omnis immundus…" Rufus finally cut off, stopping as Jo let go of Sam to pick up the water jug once again.

"Look! Something's not right! Do you see that?" Sam demanded.

Jo splashed Sam in the mouth and he spat out the water, shaking his head.

"Come on! Stop! Listen to me!"

Jo moved away from him, going to the corner with Rufus as they put their heads together to talk. Sam looked around and noticed Roger standing in the doorway, half hidden by the shadows, and he was twisting his ring.

"Listen!" he said, staring at the man with wide eyes.

"Why isn't it working?" Jo hissed.

"I don't know." Rufus said, looking at Sam who was black-eyed to their view.

"Look, listen to me, something's not right!" Sam yelled at them.

"But he's not as strong as he thinks he is." The older hunter continued.

"You can see that. Please. Please. Just listen to me." Sam pleaded.

* * *

Elena approached the house and immediately saw Sam through the front window tied up to a chair. He was soaking wet and looked exhausted and he was pleading with someone she couldn't see. Elena's eyes narrowed when she saw a blonde girl walk out of the corner to stand over him with a furious expression. As she walked up without hesitation, she concentrated on the window. As she briefly saw her reflection in the surface of the window, she saw her eyes flash electric blue before the window completely shattered. The blonde girl whirled around, her dark brown eyes wide, as Elena leapt through the window and shoved her away from Sam.

"Elena!" Sam exclaimed, sounding relieved.

The blonde girl, along with a man, glared at them.

"What, did you put out the bat signal for one of your demon buddies to come rescue you?" the blonde demanded.

Elena stared at her, confused as she stood in front of Sam, protecting him.

"What are you talking about?" she demanded.

"You. Demon." The man snapped, glaring at her.

"Me? I'm not a demon." She said, almost laughing.

"You're both demons!" the blonde shouted.

"Okay, that's impossible." Elena said, shaking her head, confused as to why they were accusing them of being demons.

"His eyes are black!" The man yelled, gesturing to Sam.

Elena turned back to him with a confused look.

"There is no possible way that Sam Winchester can be possessed! Me neither, for that matter!" she shouted back.

"Why is that?"

She sighed and rolled her eyes, turning to face Sam as she pulled his shirt out of the way.

"Because of this." they walked around to take a look at the tattoo on his skin.

Their faces were shocked as they stared at Sam.

"You have one of those too?" the blonde asked.

Elena pulled her jacket off of her shoulder and yanked her sweater aside to reveal her own inked skin.

"What the hell is going on?" the girl asked.

"Something weird." Elena said as she bent down to help Sam out of his binds.

"Sorry, Sam." The blonde said.

"It's okay." He sighed as he stood and wiped his mouth clean of the salt that was surrounding it.

"You must be Jo and Rufus." Elena said, stepping forward to stand next to Sam's tall frame.

"Yeah, who are you?" Jo asked.

"I'm Elena." she answered.

"You aren't one of the townies." Rufus said.

"No, she's with us." Sam assured them.

"Who the hell is doing this?" Jo asked.

* * *

"Dean, one of them's in Jo. We got to get it out without hurting her. So your girl isn't gonna hurt her, right?" Ellen demanded.

"Elena's focus will be on getting Sam out of there alive. I should have gone with her to make sure nothing happened." He sighed, shaking his head as he looked down.

"It called me a bitch." Ellen suddenly remembered.

"Bruise a little easy, don't you think?" Dean scoffed.

"No, that's not what I meant. It called me a black-eyed bitch." Ellen said, staring at him.

Dean stared at her.

"What kind of demons are these? Holy water and salt roll right off. My daughter may be an idiot, but she's not stupid. She wears an anti-possession charm. It's all kind of weird, right?"

"The whole thing's off." Dean agreed.

"What's your instinct?" She asked.

"My instinct? My instinct is to call Bobby and ask for help. Or Sam. Or Elena." He shrugged.

"Well, tough. All you got's me, and all I got's you. So let's figure it out." Ellen said.

"All right." Dean said, making Ellen smile.

"Do you know why Rufus came to town? Was there a specific omen?" he asked.

"He said something about water. That's all I know." Ellen said.

"Padré, you know what she's talking about… the water?" he asked, turning to the pastor.

"The river. Ran polluted all of a sudden." He explained.

"When?" Dean questioned.

"Last Wednesday. And the demon thing started up the next day." The man replied.

"Anything else? Anything." Ellen asked.

"Maybe, but it's pretty random." Austin threw in.

"Good. Random's good." Dean nodded.

"Shooting star… does that count?"

Dean and Ellen exchanged a look.

"Real big. Same night. Wednesday." The pastor threw in, remembering it.

"That definitely counts." Dean said, standing up and walking to the bookshelves in the room.

He found a Bible and brought it back to the table, searching through it.

"So, uh, you think that all this comes from outer space?" Austin asked.

"This isn't X-Files, pal." Dean growled, remembering the guy flirting with his girl.

Suddenly he found the passage he wanted and his scowl disappeared as he read aloud.

"And there fell a great star from heaven, burning like a torch, and it fell upon the river, and the name of the star was Wormwood. And many men died."

"Revelation 8:10. Are you saying that this is about the apocalypse?" the pastor asked.

"You could say. And these specific omens, they're prelude to what?" Dean asked, facing the man.

"The Four Horsemen."

Dean thought about it for a moment before remembering something.

"And which one rides the red horse?" he asked.

"War." The pastor nodded.

"That cherry Mustang parked on Main." Dean explained, turning to look at Ellen, who nodded.

"You can't think that a car…" the pastor began skeptically.

""It's the way I'd roll. I mean, think about it. It all makes sense. If War is a dude and he's here, maybe he's messing with our heads." Dean shrugged.

"Turning us on each other." Ellen agreed.

"You said Jo called you a black-eyed bitch. They think we're demons, we think they're demons. What if there are no demons at all and we're all just killing each other?" he suggested.

"Wait, just back up. It's the apocalypse?" the pastor asked, wide-eyed.

"Sorry, Padré." Dean said.

The man simply blinked at them a few times.

* * *

"That would be me." they turned to see Roger walk into the room.

Elena narrowed her eyes at him.

"Who the hell are you?" Sam demanded.

Roger simply took his glasses off and set them on a table.

"What are you?" Elena asked the better question.

"You caught me. Popped in to watch. I can hustle like that." he shrugged.

"So, the Roger everyone around here knows, the real Roger?" Sam asked as Jo and Rufus looked on, confused.

"Buried in a ditch."

Sam rolled his eyes and nodded as Elena moved closer to him.

"So who are you?" she demanded.

"Hmm… I like you. Straight to the point. No beating around the bush bullshit. Here's a hint. I was in Germany. Then in Germany. Then in the Middle East. I was in Darfur when my beeper went off. I'm waiting to hook up with my siblings. I've got three. We're going to have so much fun together." He said with a grin.

"I know who you are. There aren't any demons in town, are there?" Sam said, realizing it as they looked at him with questioning glances.

"Nope. Just frightened people ripping each other's throats out. I really haven't had to do too much. Take out a bridge here, lay in a little hallucination there, sit back, pop some corn, watch the show. Frankly, you're really vicious little animals, Sam." He chuckled.

"No. You're doing this." Sam snapped.

"Please. Last week, this was Mayberry. Now these people are stabbing each other's children." The man said.

"Cause you made them see demons!" Sam yelled.

"Sam, what is he?" Elena asked.

"He's freaking War. The four horsemen." He said, gesturing to him.

"You got me. Honestly, people don't need a reason to kill each other. I mean, you seen the Irish? They're all Irish." War shrugged as they stared at him with wide eyes.

"You think I'm a monster. I'm jello shots at a party. I just remove inhibitions." He explained, leaning against the wall casually.

"I'm gonna kill you myself." Sam growled, starting forward.

War laughed, shaking his head and making him stop in his tracks.

"Oh, that's adorable, considering you're my poster boy."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Sam demanded.

"You can't stop thinking about it, ever since you saw it dripping off the blade of that knife." Elena's eyes flashed to Sam, who was breathing hard all of the sudden.

"You're wrong." He said, shaking his head.

"Save your protests for your brother. I can see inside your head. And man, it is one-track city in there. Blood, blood, blood. Lust for power. Same as always. You want to be strong again. But not just strong. Stronger than everybody. Good intentions… quick slide to hell, buddy boy. You feel bad now? Wait till you're thigh deep in warm corpses. Because, my friend, I'm just getting started." He said, standing up and putting his glasses back on.

"Oh and, you may want to hurry. Because I'm hearing whispers of my name over at that church. I think it's about time I put a stop to it and… well poor Dean and Ellen may not fare too well with people that they've just been given guns when their eyes turn black." He said before twisting his ring and disappearing.

"Dammit!" Elena yelled, grabbing Sam's arm and dragging him out with Rufus and Jo hot on their heels.

* * *

"So now you're saying that there are no demons and war is a guy." Austin demanded.

"You believed crazy before." Dean shrugged.

Suddenly someone began to hammer on the door.

"Open up! It's Roger!"

Austin checked the peephole before letting him in. He leaned over, breathing hard as if he'd been running.

"I saw them, the demons. They know we're trying to leave. They said they're gonna pick us off one by one." He said, leaning against the wall.

"Wait wait wait. What?" Dean demanded, walking forward.

"I thought you said there were no demons." Austin said.

"There's not. Where did you go?" Ellen demanded.

"I thought someone should go out and see what's going on!" Roger said, his eyes wide.

"Where did you see the demons and what did they say exactly?" Dean questioned.

"We just sit here, we're going to be dead." Austin said.

"No, we're not!" Dean yelled.

"They're gonna kill us unless we kill them first." Roger said.

"Hold on. Hold on." Dean urged them.

"No, man, we got people to protect. All right, the able-bodied go hunt some demons." Austin said, gathering the men together.

"Whoa whoa whoa. Slow your roll. This is not a demon thing." Dean said.

"Look at their eyes! They're demons!" Roger yelled, pointing at them after he twisted his ring.

The pregnant woman gasped and the pastor raised a shotgun in their direction. The doors suddenly slammed open and Elena ran in.

"Go, go!" she yelled, grabbing their jackets and shoving them out the door.

Austin pointed the gun at her as they disappeared down the stairs.

"Elena!" Dean yelled, coming back up to stand behind her as she faced the frightened people down.

Her eyes narrowed at Roger, who was watching triumphantly.

"Go Dean." She instructed, backing up as she pushed him towards the door.

"Elena… they're demons. I know that you have some sort of connection to these guys…" Austin began, recognizing that she didn't have black eyes like the others.

"Shut up, Austin. They're not demons." She snapped.

War frowned at her and twisted his ring, narrowing his eyes when nothing happened. She simply smirked at him as she shoved Dean out of the door completely and followed him out.

* * *

When they got outside, they ran to the gas station and went inside after making sure that it was empty.

"Hi, Jo." Dean sighed, waving at the blonde as they bent down to catch their breath.

"Hey." Jo nodded.

Dean turned to Sam and they began talking.

"It's not demons. It's War. I just can't figure out how he's doing it." they said at the same time.

Elena shook her head.

"Okay, we got to find a way to stop War before everybody in this town kills each…" Dean was cut off by gunfire.

The windows began shattering and Elena caught a glimpse of Austin and everyone else holding rifles just outside of the gas station before they ducked for cover.

"Damn it!" Dean yelled.

"It's the ring!" Elena yelled, finally able to tell them her theory.

"The ring! The ring… that's right! He turned it right before he made everybody hallucinate and go hellbitch!" Dean shouted back.

"Right!" Sam yelled as well.

"I have a plan!" Elena proceeded to shout it to everyone so that they would understand.

"We got to move. Come on." Dean yelled when she was done and they began making their way to the front of the gas station as the people grew closer to it.

"People, cease fire!" Rufus yelled, standing up and raising his hands over his head. "Stop shooting! Stop!" he said, stepping out towards them as they held the gun on them.

He finally got near enough to one of them to grab his gun and slam it into his head.

"I'm getting too old for this." he growled as he pointed it at the rest.

Suddenly another man ran up, clutching a gun of his own.

"What is wrong with all of you black-eyed people?" he cried, pointing it at the pastor.

"No!" Dean shouted as they ran out of the gas station.

The gun went off and the pastor collapsed to the ground. Elena ran up to him as she yanked a rag off of the ground and pressed it to his wound.

"Stop firing usually means 'stop firing'." Rufus said, aiming his gun at the young man who shot the pastor.

Elena looked up to see Ellen being tackled to the ground by Austin. Jo was fighting with another person and unable to concentrate on it.

"You!" she got up and grabbed a young woman, forcing her to the ground.

"Hold this to his wound." She instructed before running over and yanking Austin off of Ellen.

"You need to stop now." Elena growled, slamming his head into her knee and watching as he collapsed on the ground, unconscious.

* * *

War walked up to the red Mustang looking triumphant as he did so. He looked back to take one last glimpse at the fighting before turning around again. The two brothers were standing there, both looking unimpressed. Dean grabbed him and slammed him against the hood. Sam held up Ruby's knife that Elena had handed to him.

"Whoa. Okay. That's a sweet little knife. But come on. You can't kill war, kiddos." He chuckled.

"Oh, we know." Dean shrugged.

Sam suddenly slammed his right hand against the Mustang and proceeded to cut all four fingers off in one swip. The ring clinked onto the pavement as they drew away. Dean leaned down to grab the ring and, when he looked up, both War and his 'horse' were gone.

* * *

Elena sighed as they went upstairs to the church to retrieve their weapons and all of the leftover salt. Dean was holding War's ring and studying it closely.

"Thanks for comin' out, boys." Ellen said as she held onto her daughter's arm.

"Yeah, thanks." Rufus said, leaning against a table.

"You too, Elena." Jo threw in, smiling at her.

"It's no problem. Always happy to help other hunters." Dean shrugged.

"Except you're not all hunters." Jo said, becoming serious.

They stared at her, Elena's eyes the widest.

"Oh please. You can't play us for fools. Bobby told me about the angels following you around. I just don't know why the angel sitting on your shoulder didn't figure out the whole 'War' things sooner." Rufus said, looking at Elena.

"Oh… I'm not an angel." she said, shaking her head.

"Really? Cause you busted that window out like it was nothing when you came to rescue Sam. And you lifted that Austin guy, who had to be at least two hundred pounds, off of my mom like he was a freaking feather." Jo said.

Elena bit her lip and looked at Sam and Dean for help.

"She's not an angel. She's something else, but not an angel." Dean sighed.

"Yeah? What is she?" Rufus asked.

"Something else." Elena said simply.

"The vagueness isn't helping." Jo said.

"I'm a guardian, okay? It's hard to explain but I can tell you that I was put on this earth to guard these two boys. That's why I came to rescue Sam." Elena sighed.

"I've never heard of it." Rufus said suspiciously.

"Get in line." Elena, Sam, and Dean all said at once.

"Bobby know what it is?" Ellen asked.

"The angels know what it is. They created me." Elena explained.

"Oh, so I wasn't far off with the angel theory." Jo shrugged.

"_You, my darling, have angel DNA in you."_

"No, you weren't far off." Elena admitted as Gabriel's words echoed through her mind.

"Well… that's interesting." Rufus said.

"I don't care what you are. You're making it your job to protect these boys?" Ellen asked, walking forward.

Elena nodded slowly.

"Then that's enough for me." the female hunter said, leaning forward to hug her.

* * *

Once they said goodbye to the Harvelles and Rufus, they made the hike out to the Impala. When they got there, they leaned against the hood to relax for a moment.

Dean held up the ring, studying it.

"So, pit stop at Mount Doom?" he questioned, looking over at them.

Sam remained silent as Elena smiled and shook her head.

"Dean…" Sam began.

"Sam, let's not." He said, shaking his head as Elena watched them.

"No, listen. This is important. I know you don't trust me." Sam said.

Dean looked away, something akin to shame on his face.

"Just, now I realize something. I don't trust me either." The younger brother admitted.

Dean and Elena looked at him with surprise.

"From the minute I saw that blood, only thought in my head... and I tell myself it's for the right reasons, my intentions are good, and it, it feels true, you know? But I think, underneath... I just miss the feeling. I know how messed up that sounds, which means I know how messed up I am. Thing is, the problem's not the demon blood, not really. I mean, I… what I did, I can't blame the blood or Ruby or... anything. The problem's me. How far I'll go. There's something in me that... scares the hell out of me, Dean. In the last couple of days, I caught another glimpse..." he said, shaking his head.

"So what are you saying?" Dean questioned roughly, staring at him.

"I'm in no shape to be hunting. I need to step back, 'cause I'm dangerous. Maybe it's best we just... go our separate ways." Sam said.

"No." Elena said instantly.

They looked at her.

"Well, I think he's right." Dean said as he thought about it for a moment.

"I was expecting a fight." Sam said, confused.

"The truth is I spend more time worrying about you than about doing the job right. And I just, I can't afford that, you know? Not now." Dean said as Sam nodded.

"I'm sorry, Dean."

"I know you are, Sam." He replied.

"Am I the only one who sees how bad of an idea this is? I can't protect both of you if you're separated." Elena argued, pushing away from the Impala to stand in front of them.

"You should stay with Dean. I mean, I'm not gonna be hunting so I can't get in much trouble. He'll need you more than me." Sam said, standing up to his full height and walking to pick his bag up out of the backseat.

"That doesn't make this any better! You two shouldn't separate!"

"Hey." Dean caught her hand and turned her to face him.

"I think we need this. All of us. It'll… it'll give us time to think. To accept things and move on. To think of our next move with this apocalypse and me being the vessel." he said.

"_You have ninety days, Elena. That's three months… to convince him to say yes to Michael."_

She bit her lip and looked back at Sam, who was staring at them with soulful eyes.

"He needs us, Dean." She said softly.

"He needs time, Elena." he replied.

She shook her head and broke away from him before running to Sam and embracing him tightly.

"You had better come back soon, you hear me?" she demanded.

"Yeah, I hear you." he nodded before waving at Dean and turning to walk back to the town.

"_If, at the end of those ninety days, he still says no… well I'm afraid that those few minutes of hell that I showed you when I killed you in the storage room will be nothing compared to what I put you through when you fail me."_

Elena felt tears fill her eyes as the weight of Zachariah's threat, the apocalypse, and Sam's retreating back all crushed down on her. What the hell was she going to do now?

* * *

**Author's Note: Please review! I love you all and read my author's note above if you didn't! It contains important information!**

**Elena's outfit is on my profile.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: I do not own TVD or Supernatural**

**Thanks to TheElegantFaerie, Raven176, Dark Alana, RHatch89, DrawingMyHeartOut, neontreeslover, MrsMaeveSalvatoreMikaelson, slayerdiaries, Nyssandria, Thera-Rocklynn, Hollywood17, LineChokor, Dark-Supernatural-Angel, chiwi, diehardromantic, MelissaIsLame, xxPaige23xx, Nicole0203, MaddAlice, schoch26, and the guest for reviewing!**

**A few things:**

**1. This chapter will have answers! So you can stop wishing for my death or… in the case of one reader… to slap me. There will be answers to many questions.**

**2. There will be TVD characters in this chapter but not in a normal way. It sounds confusing but they will be here. I'm sorry for the lack of TVD characters mostly but I find myself enjoying writing in the Supernatural universe so much that I forget to include them. I'll try to keep them in the story more.**

**3. All right so this isn't my Gabriel/Elena centric chapter. It has a bit of the two in it though. I've decided to change it a little bit and it isn't going to take place for a while. It's going to be an Elena-Gabriel-Castiel chapter so I hope that's all right.**

**4. Gabriel is a bit of an asshole in this chapter but remember how he was in the Changing Channels episode. I couldn't put him completely on Elena's side willing to do anything to help her and then turn him around to be on the angels side in that chapter so I'm taking it slow. But he will stop being a dick at some point, I promise.**

**5. Italics are a flashback for Elena.**

* * *

**Music**

**I Need to Know – Kris Allen (Elena and Dean at Bobby's through them falling asleep)**

**Crash/Land – In-Flight Safety (Elena's flashback with Dean, Sam, Bobby and Cas)**

* * *

Elena peered up as she climbed out of the car. They were back at Bobby's. He was still in the hospital waiting on the final few tests that would confirm his irreversible paralysis. Sam had gone off to God knows where and he wasn't answering any of Elena's calls or texts. Dean looked over at her as they walked up to it with their bags slung over their shoulders.

"Do you wanna go to the bar… or something?" he asked.

Both of them weren't entirely sure how to react to this situation. It was the first time they'd really been alone since before Lucifer rose.

"I kinda just want to go to bed and stay there for a while." she mumbled, ascending the stairs with her hand loosely in his.

"Sounds good to me." he sighed.

As soon as they got in there, Elena didn't waste anytime before pulling off her shirt and pants before she climbed in between the blankets in her undergarments. Dean did the same thing, leaving on his boxers, before climbing in next to her. She laid her head on his chest.

"I'm not sleepy." She admitted.

"Neither am I." he replied.

It had been three days since Sam left them. Three days of nothing. Elena couldn't help but think of her countdown. She had eighty-seven days until Zachariah expected a result from her. He was doomed to be disappointed. Elena sat up and peered down at him.

"Do you ever regret meeting me?" she asked.

"What?" he replied, surprised by her question.

"I don't know… it's just… I know how much you've lost and how unwilling you probably are to let people into your life so that you won't lose someone else that you cared about…" she was cut off by his finger on her lips.

"I don't regret meeting you." he said, staring deep into her eyes.

She sighed and pulled his hand away, holding it in both of hers.

"What if someone were to use me against you?" she asked, looking down at him.

"Like you would let anyone do that." he scoffed, smirking doubtfully.

"Dean, I'm serious." Elena said.

He stared at her.

"What is this about, Elena?" he asked.

She looked back before shaking her head and letting go of his hand.

"Nothing." She sighed, turning away to pull her knees to her chest and place her chin on them, wrapping her arms around her legs.

He sat up and leaned over her, placing a kiss to her tattoo before trailing it up to her shoulder.

"What are you afraid of?" Dean whispered, making chills form all over her body.

"Everything." She whimpered softly, her voice breaking on the last syllable.

He reached out and turned her face towards him as he looked at her over her shoulder.

"I'm not gonna say that you shouldn't be afraid… but you can't let that fear hold you back or else you won't get anything done. We're facing a shitstorm of stuff here and we've only scratched the surface. There is so much we have left to deal with." He informed her.

"I know… I just don't want to lose you." she cried softly, a lonely tear sliding down her cheek.

"You won't lose me. Hey… you won't lose me." he assured her as more tears joined the first.

"You can't be sure of that. You can't ever assure me of that." her voice was thick with tears now as she stared into his brilliant green eyes.

"You're right. I can't." he sighed, stroking her wet cheek with his thumb.

She let out a soft sob.

"But you know what I can do?" Dean said, making her stare at him quizzically. "I can try like hell to stay with you. I can fight whoever and whatever might try to tear us apart and I can kick their asses back to heaven or hell, wherever they came from." He said.

She shook her head, letting out a single laugh as she dropped her head and let her hair form a curtain around her face as she wiped at her tears furiously. Dean reached out and pushed her hair behind her ear before turning her face once again.

"I'm not gonna let you go that easily." he said.

Elena stared at him. Warmth filled her at his words but she knew that she shouldn't get her hopes up. She simply leaned forward and pressed her lips to his. Before she knew it, he pulled her around so that she was straddling his lap. His hands tangled in her hair as hers went around his torso to clutch at his back.

"We're alone." Dean gasped into her mouth.

"That we are." She agreed.

**LEMONY**

Elena gasped as he easily discarded her bra and pulled her down to lie on top of him as they kissed. As their lips melded together, he reached down and slid her underwear down, flipping her over to pull them all the way off. Elena stared up at him as he pulled her legs apart slowly and slid one hand down her thigh. When his hand found her center, he slid one finger along the length before teasing her sweet spot slowly, making her cry out and arch her back, before he slid it back down and into her. Another finger quickly joined it and his thumb found the bundle of nerves, teasing her endlessly as his fingers pushed in and out of her. She writhed on the bed with fervor as her entire body felt as though it was on fire.

"Dean, please." She cried, bucking her hips up as he continued to tease her mercilessly.

He smirked cockily down at her as she gripped the sheets underneath her hands. She let out a particularly loud scream of pleasure as her stomach began to coil and she approached her glorious finish.

"God! Dean!" she screamed, throwing her head back as wave after wave of pleasure rushed through her body.

Dean kissed his way up her body as she came down from her high and his fingers withdrew from her.

"So…" she whispered, looking up at him.

"In Colorado… when the soldier was flirting with me…" she trailed off.

Dean smirked, knowing exactly where this was going.

"Yes?" he urged her.

"You thought I was gonna flirt with him." she acknowledged..

"Mm-hm." he mumbled, looking down at her.

"You didn't like it." she murmured, reaching up to stroke his face.

He shook his head.

"Why not?"

He stared at her.

"Because I was jealous, you happy? I was fucking jealous." He growled before slamming his lips down onto hers in a bruising, passionate kiss.

Elena responded by flipping them over easily and pinning him down.

"Hell yes, I'm happy." She shot back before practically ripping his boxers off.

Her hand drifted over his manhood as she stared up at him hungrily. He stared at her with lust filled eyes but that wasn't the only emotion in them. It was there in his eyes just as it was in hers. Hidden but plainly shown at the same time. They still knew. Past everything. Past the apocalypse. Past everything that was happening with Sam. Past Bobby's paralysis and the angels' meddling practices. They still felt that way for each other even though neither of them voiced it.

Elena crawled up his body and let his tip tease her entrance, making him groan and his head fall back. She laid down on his body and tangled her fingers in his hair, tugging lightly to get him to look at her. When his eyes opened to reveal his darkened pools, she slowly sank down onto him. They stared at each other as he filled her completely and her warmth clenched around him delightfully. Elena bit her lip as her entire body sang with joy at being joined with him once more. She put her hands on his chest and lifted herself up to a sitting position before she began to move her hips. He groaned loudly and his hands went to her hips, guiding her movements subtly.

Their mixed noises of pleasure filled the air as they moved in sync, longing to be closer and closer to one another. Dean lifted himself up and her legs wrapped around his waist as he switched their positions. He began to drive himself into her slowly and languidly. Elena couldn't do anything but urge him on with moans and whimpers as her mind forgot how to form words. They both approached their climaxes together, their hands entertwined and their lips moving against the others. Their screams of pleasure as their bodies exploded were swallowed by their kissing. Finally Dean slid out of her and flipped them over so that she was sprawled across her chest. Their breathing slowly went back to normal as they just laid there.

**LEMONY OVER**

"Okay… now I'm tired." Elena sighed, pushing her hair out of her face.

"Yeah." Dean agreed.

She looked up at him and pressed a soft kiss to his lips one more time. The words hung in the air, unspoken though they were on the tips of both of their tongues. They both fell asleep thinking about how much they wished that it was easy enough so that they could just say it without fear of the hurt that came with the words.

* * *

Elena's eyespopped open and she realized that it was dark in the room. She didn't even remember falling asleep. Dean was sleeping peacefully next to her, his arm around her shoulders as she was curled up against his side with their legs tangled together. The sheets were haphazardly thrown across their hips and her chest was pressed into his side so there was nothing exactly visible. She suddenly got the feeling that they weren't alone. Her eyes scanned the room and she realized that someone was standing in the doorway.

"Jesus Christ, Gabriel!" she hissed as she jumped out of her skin.

He grinned at her as he walked forward, gleefully sucking on another red lollipop.

"How… compromising." He said with a wink, sitting on the edge of the bed.

Elena sat up, covering her chest with her arms, as she glared at him.

"What the hell are you doing here?" she demanded in a whisper.

"No need to whisper. Sleeping beauty here won't wake up." Gabriel said, poking Dean's leg.

"Gabriel!" she snapped.

"Hold your horses, would ya sweetheart? I'm here to give you some answers, if you still want them." He shrugged.

"Really? You sure you don't want to be vague anymore?" she demanded.

He simply grinned at her.

"This isn't exactly the best time." she began, gesturing ot her state of undress.

"No worries. I can take care of that." he said before snapping his fingers.

They were suddenly standing on the side of a road. Elena looked down to see that she was fully clothed. When she noticed what she was wearing, her head snapped up to glare at Gabriel.

"This shirt is see through." She snapped, gesturing to the lacy shirt and the black bra that was quite visible underneath.

"And doesn't it look fantastic?" He replied without looking at her, peering down the road that they were on.

"No!"

He looked at her unamused face and then down at her clothing before sighing heavily.

"Yes, it does. But you're far too much of a prude-ish dresser for someone who is sleeping with Dean Winchester." He said, snapping his fingers once more.

She looked down to see a much more acceptable outfit and nodded gratefully.

"Thank you. Where are we?" she asked, looking around and noticing that the place looked slightly familiar.

"Well I thought that you of all people would recognize this even if it has changed. We're in your very own yMystic Falls, cupcake. Almost nineteen years ago." he said, looking around as he stuck his hands in his pockets.

Elena gaped at him.

"Why are we in Mystic Falls… nineteen years ago?" she asked, unable to quite wrap her head around it even though she'd traveled backward in time before.

"Because right there…" he pointed at an oncoming car that stopped at a familiar house.

A young man jumped out and ran to the other side to help out a very pregnant teenage girl.

"… is your dearest mommy and daddy. The real ones." He said.

Elena stared at them with wide eyes as John helped Isobel up to the door. Her eyes filled with tears as it opened to reveal a much younger Grayson and Miranda standing there looking shocked.

"Why did you bring me here?" she asked, looking at him.

"Because this, baby girl, is where your story begins." He said with a wry grin before he snapped his fingers.

They were standing in a nursery. A coo came from the crib and Elena walked over to it to see her own eyes staring up at her.

"Okay… this is creepy." She admitted.

"You're gonna want to get out of the way." Gabriel said, pulling her away from the cradle.

Elena looked up to see her parents enter the room.

"Can they see us?" she asked as they approached the crib.

"Nope." He answered.

Miranda and Grayson leaned over the crib with wide grins.

"Good night, Elena." her mother said softly, reaching down to stroke her cheek.

"This is two months after you were born." Gabriel said as she watched the scene unfold in front of her.

"What's so important about this night?" she asked as her parents walked out and shut off the light.

"This…" he said, trailing off as someone appeared by the crib.

Elena gasped when she saw who it was.

"… is the night that you and I first met." He said, looking at the other version of himself.

She looked at him with wide eyes.

"Does this have something to do with the angel DNA? What did you do to me? Did you bleed into my mouth like that demon did to Sam?" she demanded.

"Nope. Angels are better than demons." He said, leading her closer to the crib. "All it takes is one touch."

The past version of Gabriel looked down at the baby version of her with a vaguely interested look.

"You're a little small for someone who is supposed to help save the world." Past Gabriel said, smirking down at her.

Baby Elena just grinned up at him and kicked her feet freely.

"Hmm… but you are adorable." He said, reaching down.

Elena watched with wide eyes as his finger brushed over her cheek. Baby Elena laughed gleefully as a bright light filled the room suddenly. Then it went away as quickly as it came and past Gabriel was no longer there.

"That's when it happened?" she asked, turning to present Gabriel.

"Yep." He nodded.

"Why did it happen?" she demanded.

He turned to her and shrugged.

"What can I say? I was bored." The angel said.

Elena narrowed her eyes at him.

"Oh fine. I had a plan." He said.

"Which is?"

"Still in development." He replied.

She stared at him.

"You infused me with angel DNA for a plan that isn't even fully thought of yet?" Elena snapped.

"Well… it's mostly thought of. I really just knew that I would need a nice powerful guardian on my side. One that my brothers couldn't control as easy as the other guardians. You just fell into my lap almost literally. They were going to destroy your line until I stopped them." Gabriel explained, snapping his fingers so that they were on the street.

"In fact, my siblings almost went back on their decision several times. They were convinced that, because you weren't created by us, you would be a great danger to them. If only they knew." He said with a grin.

"The angels were scared of me?" she scoffed.

"Were? Pumpkin, they still are." He said, turning to her.

"Can we stop with the pet names?" she asked with a raised eyebrow.

"I don't think so, Buttercup." He winked.

"Why are the angels still scared of me? I know for a fact that they're all still scared of me." she sighed, exasperated by his constant teasing even if she'd only met him a few times.

"Because they can all sense the power you possess and that combined with the fact that you're not actually scared of them terrifies them."

"I'm not scared of them? They scare the shit out of me." Elena scoffed.

"Do they really, though? Or do you just trick yourself into thinking that you're scared of them because you know that you should be?" Gabriel countered.

Elena stared at him, unsure of how to answer his question because she honestly didn't know the answer.

"You've stood up to the angels more than any other guardian has dared to. Most non-angels wouldn't even be able to say most of the things you've said to them." He said.

"Why am I so different from other guardians?" she asked.

"Because of what I just did in that nursery." He said, gesturing back to the house.

"So you made me… less scared? That's it?" she asked.

"Of course that isn't it. I'm not entirely sure what other powers you'll develop because, let's face it, this has never been done before. But the more you use the ones you have, the more the others will be revealed." The angel explained.

"You gave me extra powers?" she asked.

"Well yeah. What would be the point in giving you the magic touch if I didn't, Sugar Plum?" he shrugged.

"Why?"

Gabriel stared at her.

"If you make a single joke about how you got the inspiration at the moment or anything of the sort, I swear to God I'll punch you in the face I don't care if it hurts." Elena snapped.

He grinned and snapped his fingers. They were still standing in the street but the sun was high in the sky. She looked back to see her parents once again. Miranda and Grayson were sitting on the grass playing with a five-year-old Elena and a blow-up beach ball. They walked closer to see the two turn their backs for a moment and Elena saw Jenna up on the porch holding a young Jeremy. In that moment, young Elena threw the ball into the air and it caught on the wind, floating into the street. Young Elena followed it eagerly, paying the oncoming car no mind. Elena's eyes widened as Miranda turned and shrieked loudly. At the last second, someone darted across the road and grabbed Elena, running her to the safety of the sidewalk.

"That's why." He said, pointing at the situation.

Elena immediately realized that the rescuer of her younger self was, once again, Gabriel.

"You saved me." she breathed.

"Because you, honeysuckle, are one hell of a reckless human being. You have no idea how many times I've had to show up and save your life." he said with a roll of his eyes, reaching out to touch her shoulder, no doubt tired of snapping his fingers.

They disappeared once again and reappeared on a dock. It was their lakehouse. Elena looked around with questioning eyes before a vague memory flashed before her mind. Falling.

"I… I remember this." she admitted.

"I knew you would start remembering things at some point." He acknowledged.

He turned her around and pointed to a tree that a seven-year-old version of her was eagerly climbing. Jeremy was far off yelling at Elena to stop and that he would tell Mom and Dad and she would get in trouble. It all happened at once. Jeremy turned to run off and a smaller branch snapped under Elena's weight. She didn't have time to let out a cry of panic as she slid down the tree for a moment before falling backwards. Elena stared with shock as Gabriel appeared and caught her easily. The younger version of her looked up at him with wide eyes as they moved closer to see him set her at the base of the tree.

"You should be more careful." The past version of the angel said, looking down at her scraped knee.

"I didn't mean to." Young Elena said in a small voice.

"I know." He said before he reached out and touched her knee.

Both Elenas watched with surprise as he healed her wound. He looked up at her with a smirk, putting a finger over his lips in a shushing noise before he disappeared before her eyes.

"I never said anything about that. I remember now. I kept that all to myself, certain that no one would have believed me." Elena murmured.

"The sad thing is… your parents would have believed you. And they would have tried to hunt me down." Elena looked over at Gabriel. "Key word… tried." He said with a cocky grin before snapping his fingers.

They weren't in Mystic Falls anymore. They were in a bar somewhere.

"When I realized just how much a magnet for trouble you were, I realized that I needed to have a strong defense in place for things of all natures just in case, for any reason, I couldn't get to you. So I found the one person… well, sort of person… that I could turn to, trusting that he would protect the young girl he knew of as the doppelganger." Gabriel said, pointing to a figure sitting at the bar.

Elena stared with shock in her eyes at his face.

"Elijah?" she whispered, turning to look at Gabriel.

"I saw the same thing in this dear Original vampire that you did. I saw honor." Gabriel said, pointing at yet another past version of him walking up.

"Hello." He said to the vampire who was drinking amber liquid out of a small glass.

"What are you?" Elijah asked immediately, turning to quirk an eyebrow at the angel.

"You do not mess around. That's all right. I respect it." Gabriel nodded, sitting down.

"You are not human. You're certainly not a vampire or a werewolf." Elijah acknowledged.

"And you are far too smart to think that those are the only beings that exist in this world."

Elijah nodded and turned back to his drink.

"I'm Gabriel. You're Elijah." He said, smirking when the vampire's head snapped back to him.

"Angels are supposed to be exctinct. I heard the rumors that the witches wiped them out." he said.

"Witches have no such power. We simply ceased revealing our true visages. We're taking on human vessels now. Have been for a good few thousand years."

"What is it you require of me? I know that you would not be here if there was not something you needed." Elijah said.

"We have a common interest." Gabriel informed him.

"And what would that be?" the vampire asked.

"A young girl that goes by the name Elena Gilbert." Elijah looked at him with a confused look.

"You would know her by a different name. A title. The doppelganger." The angel informed him.

Elijah's eyes widened and he put the drink down, staring at Gabriel.

"What about her?"

"I know where she is. And I know what she is meant for."

"The sacrifice. But wouldn't an angel like you be more keen on protecting such a girl from a horrific experience?" Elijah asked.

"Yes I would. And that is why I do not mean the sacrifice. She is meant for so much more beyond that. I ensured that she would be. That is why I have decided to come to you. You have a quarrel with your brother." Gabriel said.

"That is putting it lightly." Elijah replied.

"You do not wish for this ritual to happen?"

"More than anything? No." the vampire said, shaking his head.

"Then you and I have a deal to make."

* * *

They disappeared and Elena found that they were back in Bobby's house in the kitchen.

"Wait… what deal did you make with him?" Elena asked.

"Keep you alive at all costs. No matter what it took." Gabriel said.

"He kept Klaus alive when he promised to kill him." she said.

"And for that he has vowed to repay you, hasn't he? Like I said, honorable."

"Why am I so important? Why have you fought to ensure my survival? This can't just be about keeping Sam and Dean alive. I mean, why would you care so much about them?" she asked, sitting at the table.

Gabriel scoffed, shaking his head.

"I couldn't care less about those two. I care about the war. And ending it. And you are central to that." Gabriel said.

"What do you have against the Winchesters?" she demanded, hoping that he would continue to be honest.

"Let's just say that they know me by a different name and even a different species. That is why I never appear in front of them. I wish to keep that up. And they've tried to kill me more than once, so that tends to irk a guy." Gabriel said, opening the fridge and looking around with a disgusted expression.

Elena stared at him before shaking her head.

"I don't know why I trust you. You seem like the opposite of someone I would trust." She admitted.

"Yes well… we all do crazy things." he acknowledged, closing the fridge and turning to her.

"Why did you ask Castiel to look after me? Why didn't you do it yourself? And why did you choose when you did to reveal yourself to me?" she asked.

"One question at a time, Babycakes. It's been a thousand years since I had any contact with any of my brothers. I got tired of them fighting and chose to live on earth instead of around their petty asses. When I knew it was time for you to find the Winchesters, I realized that my brothers would be watching to wait for me to show up so that they could drag me back into their playroom. That's when I contacted Castiel. He agreed to watch over you and keep our meeting a secret for the sake of the Winchesters' continued existance. When you freed Lucifer, I knew that my brothers would have too much to worry about without trying to hunt me down. So that's when I saw fit to contact you." Gabriel shrugged.

Elena stared at him.

"What is the part I play in the apocalypse? Why is it so important?" she asked.

"Isn't it obvious? I thought it would be with the offer Zachariah gave you."

"You knew about that?" she demanded, standing up.

"Of course I did." he shrugged.

"Well why didn't you stop him? Why don't you still stop him?" she asked angrily.

"Why would I do that?" the angel asked.

"Because he's threatening me… and Dean." Elena said as though it was obvious.

"No, he's threatening your relationship which I honestly couldn't care less about. Maybe you two need a little separation." Gabriel shrugged.

She glared at him, her eyes blazing with fury.

"That's not a decision that you or your brothers should get to make." She snapped.

"Oh… but it is." Gabriel nodded.

"Wait a minute you… you want Dean to say yes to Michael." She realized.

He stared at her.

"Of course I do. That's how this thing ends. Lucy and Mikey – final showdown." He said, flashing his hands as if he was reading a marquee sign.

"You are in full support of what Zachariah is doing." She breathed, sitting down once again.

"Well… he's going about it a little strangely but… yeah." Gabriel shrugged.

She glared up at him.

"Get out." she snapped.

"You can't just…" he began.

"Get the hell out of here!" she screamed, standing up and advancing on him.

"I will never convince Dean to be Michael's vessel. You can take that back to your damn brothers!" she growled.

"And what if I told your precious lover about that little ultimatum? Do you think he would have the same view? How long do you think that it would take him to run to Zachariah and agree to his terms as long as you were left out of it?" Gabriel asked, quirking an eyebrow at her.

"If you tell Dean anything… I swear to God… I will go to Zachariah and tell him to kill me because I would never let Dean say yes. I will tape his fucking mouth shut before I let the word leave his lips." Elena snapped, her anger level rising quickly.

"You're being foolish." Gabriel said, no longer joking as he stared darkly.

"Get… out." she snapped.

"Until next time." Gabriel said with a wave before disappearing.

Elena stared at the spot that he disappeared from before turning to walk upstairs. When she got there, she quickly stripped the clothing off and climbed back into the bed, curling into Dean's side once again. Her eyes squeezed shut as she tried to block everything out.

* * *

Elena jerked awake to the sound of the shower turning on. She looked over to see that the bed was empty. She sighed and flopped back onto the pillow, wishing that her mind would stop being so crowded with everything that was going on. She slid out of the bed and walked into the bathroom, stripping off her underwear and climbing into the shower. Dean jumped slightly when her arms wrapped around his stomach but he instantly relaxed in her embraced. Her cheek laid against his back as she just held him.

"What's wrong?" he asked as he turned around and looked down at her.

"I don't know. I just feel like today will be just as full of stuff as every day is. I wish there could be one day that we don't have to think about the apocalypse or anything." She admitted, looking up at him.

"Well… why can't we have that day? Here's the deal, we'll just go grab some food for the rest of the day and we'll stay here. We'll watch whatever movies Bobby happens to have or we'll talk or something to amuse ourselves. We won't think about anything." He said.

She smiled up at him and nodded.

"That sounds good." She agreed.

"But first… you look far too sexy to resist." He said, lifting her into his arms as she giggled.

* * *

Elena was walking around the room picking her clothes up and Dean was in the bathroom shaving when she heard his surprised shout. She ran into the bathroom to see Castiel standing directly behind Dean, who was wearing a pair of jeans slung low on his hips and no shirt.

"Don't do that." Dean snapped as he turned around to glare at the angel.

"Hello, Dean, Elena." he nodded at them.

Dean looked up to see that Cas was standing inches from him.

"Cas, we've talked about this. Personal space?" he reminded him, making Elena smile slightly.

"My apologies." He said, stepping back as Dean turned to walk out of the bathroom. He grabbed his shirt off of the bed and pulled it on as Cas shadowed his footsteps.

"How'd you find us? I thought we were flying below the angel radar." He said, looking back at him as he sat on the bed.

"You are. Bobby told me where you were." Cas said, looking between them.

"I looked elsewhere in the house and found that you two are alone. Where's Sam?" he asked.

Dean's jaw tightened as Elena looked down at her hands.

"Us and Sam are taking separate vacations for a while. So. You find God yet? More importantly, can I have my damn necklace back, please?" he demanded, changing the subject.

"No, I haven't found him. That's why I'm here. I need your help." Cas said.

"No." Dean snapped, shaking his head.

Elena stared at him with surprise.

"Today… it's our day off. Vacation day. We'll help you tomorrow." Dean said, gesturing between him and Elena.

"Day off? It's the apocalypse. There are no days off." Castiel said as if the term was foreign to him.

"There are for us. Come back tomorrow, Chuckles." He said, shaking his head as he stood up.

Elena sighed and shook her head.

"What do you need help with, Cas?" she asked.

Dean stared at her with an incredulous expression.

"He came to us for help, Dean. We can't turn him away. Not after what he did for us. We'll have our day off afterwards." Elena said reassuringly.

Dean groaned and clenched his fists.

"What do you need help with? God hunt? Not interested." He said simply.

"It's not God. It's someone else." Cas said, looking at Elena gratefully before turning back to Dean.

"Who?" Elena asked, walking forward.

"Archangel. The one who killed me." Cas explained.

"Scuse me?" Dean said, disbelief in his tone.

"His name is Raphael."

"You were wasted by a teenage mutant ninja angel?" Dean scoffed.

Castiel ignored him.

"I've heard whispers that he's walking the earth. This is a rare opportunity." He said.

"For what? Revenge?" Dean asked.

"Information." The angel corrected the hunter.

"So, what, you think you can find this dude and he's just gonna spill God's address?" Dean asked as he pulled socks and shoes on.

"Yes, because we are gonna trap him and interrogate him." Cas nodded.

Both of them froze and stared at him.

"You're serious about this." Dean said.

"Cas, we all heard this angel coming down from heaven. He killed you once and almost destroyed an entire house and you want to trap him?" Elena asked, also unbeileving.

Castiel just stared at them.

"Give us one good reason why we should do this." Dean challenged him.

"Because you're Michael's vessel and no angel will dare harm you." Castiel said.

They both looked at him with surprise.

"Oh, so I'm your bullet shield." Dean nodded, sounding the exact opposite of thrilled.

"I need your help, both of you, because you two are the only ones who'll help me. Please." Castiel said, his eyes wide and pleading.

Elena looked over at Dean as he considered it. When his eyes met hers, she nodded slowly and he sighed.

"All right, fine. Where is he?" he asked.

"Maine. Let's go." Cas said, sounding relieved as he reached out to touch Dean's forehead.

He leaned away, shaking his head.

"We're driving." He informed the angel.

* * *

Elena and Dean looked up at the sheriff's department of Waterville, Maine (or Boringville as Dean so graciously deemed it when they drove through the town) as they climbed out of the Impala.

"And we're here why?" Dean asked as he adjusted his tie and Elena pulled at her skirt.

"A deputy sheriff laid eyes on the archangel." Castiel explained.

"And he still has eyes? All right, what's the plan?" Dean asked, pulling out the two ID's.

Elena smirked down at the one he was holding for Castiel. It started out as a joke back when Lucifer wasn't free and the apocalypse didn't seem inevitable. They commented on Castiel's constant wearing of a suit and the fact that he could probably pull off an FBI badge pretty well. That's when Bobby got the idea to make a fake ID for the angel just for fun. She smiled fondly as the memory popped up in her head.

"_You can't make an ID without a picture." Elena reminded Bobby as they laughed over the idea of making the angel a badge._

"_Well then let's get a picture of the guy." Bobby shrugged._

_She laughed and shook her head as she curled up on the couch between Sam and Dean and Bobby sat at the desk. They were all drinking beers and actually enjoying each others' company. Elena, Dean, and Sam had just gotten back from the trip to Mystic Falls. Elena winced as her shoulder twinged._

"_This tattoo still hurts." She whimpered, looking at Dean pitifully._

"_At least you aren't gonna be possessed again." He reminded her._

_She pouted and turned back to Bobby, who was pulling out the camera he used to take their pictures for the fake ID's._

"_All right someone call the angel. We'll take him by surprise." Bobby said, standing up and getting ready._

"_No no wait. I'll take the picture." Elena said, stumbling up to Bobby and taking the camera from him, turning to be at the ready._

"_Dean, you call Cas." She said, pointing to him._

"_Am I the only one who thinks this isn't gonna go well?" Sam asked._

"_What if the camera takes a picture of his true visage and all of our eyes get burned out?" Dean asked, backing up his brother._

"_Just call him!" she laughed, ready to take the picture as soon as he showed up._

"_Ugh. This is gonna be bad. Cas! Get your feathery ass down here! We have need of you!" Dean yelled._

_Elena could barely contain herself as they heard the distinct noise of wings. Cas appeared in the room facing away from her and towards Dean._

"_What is it?" he asked._

"_Cas over here." Elena said, ready as soon as he turned to look at her with a confused expression._

_She pressed the button and flash filled the room. When she looked down, her peals of laughter filled the room at the befuddled look on the angel's face in the picture. She handed it to Bobby before she stumbled over to Cas and put her hands on his shoulders, looking up at him._

_"Bobby is gonna make you a fake FBI badge. You'll officially be one of us." She said, patting his shoulder._

"_I think that she is inebriated." Cas said to the rest of them._

"_Aren't we all?" Dean shrugged, standing up and walking over to Elena to guide her back to the couch._

_Bobby got busy with making the badge while they all laughed over the picture as they passed it around._

"_Have I missed something?" Cas asked._

"_It's called a joke." Sam said, standing up to get another beer for everyone._

"_Can you bring me some candy, Sam?" Elena asked, looking up at him with pleading eyes._

"_I'll bring you whatever you want, 'Lena." He said, smiling back at her and making her face light up with happiness._

"_Thank you, Sam." She said, thrilled._

_Dean grinned at her as she settled in his arms._

"_Cas, wait. Don't leave. Hang out with us." Elena stopped him._

"_Hang out?" the angel asked, confused at the words._

"_Chill? Talk? Make conversation? Have fun?" she listed._

"_Have fun? All right." Cas said, walking to a chair and sitting down, staring around at them awkwardly._

_Elena grinned at his attempt to act normal._

"_You want a beer, Cas?" Dean asked._

"_A beer?" the angel asked, sounding unsure._

"_It'll be okay." Elena promised getting up and bounding into the kitchen to grab him one. _

_Sam was in there gathering up the stuff._

_"I'm getting a beer for Cas too." She informed him._

_"We're gonna get the angel drunk?" Sam asked, smirking._

"_I'm sure it takes more than one beer to get an angel drunk." Elena said with a roll of her eyes as she grabbed it and grinned up at Sam as they walked back into the other room._

_She handed it to Cas and helped Sam pass out the other stuff, taking the big bag of Sour Patch Kids for herself to sort through it and claim the red ones._

"_Don't eat all of the red ones!" Dean argued, trying to grab it out of her hands._

"_They're mine!" she shrieked, attempting to keep the bag away from him as she popped one into her mouth._

_Sam and Bobby watched, laughing as they fought like children over the candy. Castiel just looked alarmed as he held the beer bottle in his hands. Dean finally wrestled the bag out of her grip and they settled on sharing them as Elena pouted._

"_You're supposed to drink it, Cas." Dean said as he handed Elena a handful of the red Sour Patch Kids that he picked out as she beamed up at him._

_The angel stared at him with an uncertain look before lifting the bottle to his lips. He took a slow sip and his eyes widened at the taste._

"_It is strange." he admitted as he swallowed._

"_Congrats, Cas. You've just had your first taste of alcohol at a bajillion years old." Elena informed him, leaning into Dean's arms and laying her head on his shoulder._

"_No such number exists." Castiel informed her before taking another longer drink as they continued to talk, drink, and have fun._

Elena blinked as she pulled herself out of the memory and adjusted her jacket.

"We'll... tell the officer that he witnessed an angel of the Lord, and the officer will tell us where the angel is." Cas said, confused.

"Seriously? You're going to walk in there and tell him the truth?" Dean asked as they raised their eyebrows at him.

"Why not?" Castiel asked.

"Because we're humans." Dean said, stashing the ID inside of Castiel's coat before adjusting his coat and tie.

Elena watched with an amused expression, thinking that it was a little bit adorable that Dean was helping Castiel with his clothing.

"And when humans want something really, really bad, we lie." Dean informed the angel.

"Why?" Cas asked.

"Because… that's how you become President." Dean nodded before looking back at Elena and nodding as they crossed the street to walk into the building.

* * *

When they got inside, they were immediately directed to the back to find a Deputy Framingham, who witnessed the archangel.

"Deputy Framingham?" Dean asked as they saw a man standing there.

He turned to squint at them and Dean held up his badge.

"Hi. Alonzo Mosely, FBI. This is my partner, Eddie Moscone." He said, gesturing to Castiel.

Castiel stood there staring at the deputy, trying to look intimidating but really succeeding in looking like a kicked puppy, which was impressive because when he wasn't trying, he could look terrifyingly intimidating.

"Also FBI." Dean sighed.

Castiel still did nothing as they both stared at him. He suddenly caught on and pulled out the badge, fumbling with it before opening it to display it upside-down. Elena fought back the smile that threatened to overtake her face.

Dean rolled his eyes, exasperated, before turning to flip it over for the angel.

"He's, uh, he's new. This is our analyst, Miss Madison Tate." He said, gesturing to Elena, who nodded pleasantly at the deputy.

"Mind if we ask you a few questions?" Dean asked as Castiel peered down at the ID curiously and Elena smirked at him.

"Yeah, sure. Talk here, though." He said, indicating his right ear as he turned to walk into his office.

"Hearing's all blown to hell in this one." He said, gesturing to his left ear.

"That happen recently?" Dean asked.

"Yeah. Gas station. Why you're here, isn't it?" Framingham asked.

"Yes, it is." Dean nodded as they all sat down.

Elena pulled out a notepad to take notes.

"You mind just, uh, running us through what happened?" Dean suggested.

"A call came in. Disturbance out at the Pump and Go on Route 4." The deputy explained.

"What kind of disturbance?" Dean asked.

"Would not have believed my eyes if I hadn't seen it myself. We're talking a riot. Full scale." Framingham explained.

"How many?" Dean questioned.

"Thirty, forty, in all-out kill-or-be-killed combat?" he said.

"Any idea what set them off?"

"It's angels and demons, probably." Cas said, causing them all to look at him.

He looked directly back at the deputy.

"They're skirmishing all over the globe." Cas informed him.

"Come again?" Framingham turned to Dean. "What did he say?" he asked Dean.

"Nothing." Dean said at the same time as Castiel said, "Demons."

They looked at each other.

"Nothing." Dean repeated and the angel said, "Demons." Once more before catchign on and shutting up.

"Demons, you know, drink, adultery. We all have our demons, Walt." Dean said, trying to brush it off.

"I guess." The deputy said, staring between the two males before shaking his head.

Dean stared over at Castiel before looking back at the deputy.

"Anyway. What happened next?" he asked.

"Freaking explosion, that's what. They said it was one of those underground gas tanks, but, uh, I don't think so." he said, shaking his head.

"Why not?" Dean asked.

"Wasn't your usual fireball. It was, um…" the deputy trailed off.

"Pure white." Castiel guessed.

"Yeah. Gas station was leveled. Everyone was...it was just horrible. And I see this one guy, kneeling, real focused-like, not a damn scratch on him." Framingham said.

"You know him?" Dean asked.

"Donnie Finneman. Mechanic there." the deputy nodded.

"Let me guess, he just, uh, vanished into thin air?" Dean asked.

"Uh, no, Kolchak. He's down at St. Pete's." the deputy said, narrowing his eyes at them.

Castiel turned to Dean with a narrowed look.

"St. Pete's." he repeated for their benefit.

"Thank you." Dean said sarcastically.

* * *

Elena walked behind Castiel and Dean as they approached a room at St. Pete's. They were directed to it by a male orderly and looked through the window at a man sitting in a wheelchair staring at the wall. He was catatonic.

"I take it that's not Raphael anymore?" Dean asked.

"Just an empty vessel." Cas confirmed, nodding.

"So is this what I'm looking at if Michael jumps in my bones?" he asked, turning to the angel.

Castiel's eyes flashed to Elena before looking back at Dean.

"No, not at all. Michael is much more powerful. It'll be far worse for you." he said simply, making Elena look down at her shoes and Dean look away awkwardly.

* * *

Elena looked up as Dean paced the abandoned house thumbing through his father's journal. Castiel had brought them there to stay until he returned before disappearing without any further explanation.

"I'm sure he'll be back soon." She said.

"Yeah, I just don't know why we have to be in the Blair Witch Project." Dean said, gesturing around the creepy, empty cabin-like house.

She opened her mouth to say something but Castiel appeared holding a ceramic jug.

"Where've you been?" Dean asked, walking up to them as the angel sat at the table with Elena.

"Jerusalem." Cas said, looking up at him.

Dean exchanged a surprised look with Elena.

"Oh, how was it?" he asked without missing another beat.

"Arid." Cas replied.

"What's that?" Elena asked, pointing at the jug.

"It's oil. It's very special. Very rare." He answered.

"Okay, so we trap Raphael with a nice vinaigrette?" Dean asked sarcastically.

"No." Cas answered automatically as if he was used to Dean's ridiculous statements.

"When does this ritual have to happen?" Elena asked, leaning forward onto her elbows.

"Sunrise." He replied, looking back at her.

"Tell me something. You keep saying we're gonna trap this guy. Isn't that kinda like trapping a hurricane with a butterfly net?" Dean asked, standing next to the table.

"No, it's harder." Cas said, glancing up at him.

"Do we have any chance of surviving this?"

"You do." Cas said, making Elena's eyes widen.

"So odds are you're a dead man tomorrow." Dean nodded.

"Yes." The angel confirmed.

"No. No no. You just came back. You can't just… die again." Elena said.

"Well… unless my father decides to step in again, Raphael has far more power than me." Cas informed her.

"So tell me why this is a good idea, again?" she requested, staring back at him.

"Because it's the best chance I have of finding God."

Elena sighed and shook her head, looking down at her hands.

"Well. Last night on earth. What are your plans?" Dean asked, sounding as casual as he could.

"I just thought I'd sit here quietly." Cas said confusedly.

Elena glanced up at Dean.

"Come on, anything? Booze, women?" She rolled her eyes at his last suggestion and he shrugged in her direction as Castiel looked away from Dean uncomfortably.

They stared at him for a moment, comprehending his awkward gaze directed at the table.

"You have been with women before. Right? Or an angel, at least?" Dean questioned, his eyebrows knitting together.

"Dean! You don't need to know that!" Elena said, feeling bad for the suddenly embarrassed angel who was rubbing the back of his neck.

"You mean to tell me you've never been up there doing a little cloud-seeding?" Dean asked, ignoring her protests.

"I've never had occasion, okay?" Cas said quickly.

"All right." Dean grabbed his jacket and turned to the angel.

"Let me tell you something. There are two things I know for certain. One, Bert and Ernie are gay. Two, you are not gonna die a virgin. Not on my watch. Let's go." he said, looking at Elena.

"I am not going with you." she scoffed.

"But…"

"You are on a mission to de-virginize an angel, which I'm pretty sure is sacriligious. I know you're going to a brothel of some sort, where I have zero interest in going. So no, I'm not going with you." she said, shaking her head stubbornly.

"Fine." He sighed, handing her the Impala keys.

"What is this?" she asked, confused.

"I don't want to leave you stuck at this place. Go find a motel and text me where it is. I'll have Cas zap us into town." He said, gesturing to the wide-eyed angel.

"This is not going to go well." She warned Dean.

* * *

Dean chuckled as Castiel looked at him with a terrified expression.

"Hey. Relax." He said.

"This is a den of iniquity. I should not be here." The angel said.

"Dude, you full-on rebelled against heaven. Iniquity is one of the perks." Dean smirked.

A hooker began to approach them in white lingerie and Dean looked up at her.

"Showtime." He said happily.

"Hi. What's your name?" she asked in a seductive voice as Castiel tried not to look at her.

"Cas." Dean said, startling him as he looked back at the hunter.

"His name is Cas. What's your name?" he said, looking up at her with a smile.

"Chastity." She said, smiling.

"Chastity." Dean said, looking back at Cas.

He picked up his beer and began drinking it as fast as he could.

"Wow. Is that kismet or what, buddy? Well, he likes you, you like him, so dayenu." Dean said as Chastity tugged Castiel up.

"Come on, baby." She said, pulling him towards the back.

Dean stood and grabbed his coat, stopping him.

"Hey, listen. Take this." he said, handing him a wad of money.

"If she asks for a credit card, no. Now just stick to the basics, okay? Do not order off the menu. Go get her, tiger." He said as Castiel remained still and stared at him with an expression that screamed 'get me out of here'.

"Don't make me push you." Dean threatened, smirking.

Castiel took the money and turned to follow Chastity.

Another hooker walked up to him and he shook his head.

"Sorry, darling. I've got a girl waitin' on me at home." he said, brushing her off.

* * *

Elena was lounging on the bed at their motel room when she got a text. She pulled her phone out and unlocked it, squinting at the message.

**Help me**

It was from a number that she didn't recognize but, somehow, she knew exactly who the plea for help came from. With a smirk on her face, she grabbed the Impala keys and began looking for the address of the brothel that Dean would have taken Castiel too.

* * *

Dean was sitting at the bar when he heard a bloodcurdling scream from the back. He sighed and stood up, knowing that it wasn't good.

"Get out of my face! Leave me alone! Bastard! Screw you, jerk!" Chastity was screaming at Castiel as she shoved the money back into his hands.

He looked extremely disheiveled and confused.

"I'll kill you!" the upset hooker shouted, turning to stomp past Dean, recognizing him immediately as he stared upon the scene with a confused look.

"Screw you too! God! Oh! Jerk!" she spat at him before running off.

"The hell did you do?" Dean demanded as he walked up to the still terrified angel.

"I don't know. I just looked her in the eyes and told her it wasn't her fault that her father Gene ran off. It was because he hated his job at the post office." Cas said.

"Oh, no, man." Dean said, rubbing his forehead with a grimace.

"What?" Castiel asked.

"This whole industry runs on absent fathers. It's… it's the natural order." He explained.

Castiel looked past him and he turned to see two bouncers walking towards them.

"We should go. Come on." he said, pulling Castiel towards the door at the end of the corridor.

When they got outside, he began laughing much to the confusion of the angel.

"What's so funny?" Castiel.

"Oh nothing. It's been a while since I've laughed that hard." Dean said, chuckling as they walked down the alleyway towards the street.

When they walked onto it, they immediately recognized the girl leaning against the black Impala.

"Seriously?" she said with a raised eyebrow.

"Hey, why are you here?" Dean asked.

"Because I received an angelic text for help. What did you do to the poor guy?" Elena asked upon seeing Castiel's partly scared expression and part pride at making Dean laugh.

"I did nothing. Ask him what he did to Chastity though." He smirked as she handed him the keys and walked forward to reassure the angel that she wouldn't let Dean take him back in one of those places.

"Really? Chastity?" she said, rolling her eyes as they climbed into the car.

* * *

Elena looked back at Castiel and Dean, who were gathered around Donnie Finneman in his wheelchair and pouring a circle of oil around him. She was keeping watch for anyone who might come.

"When the oil burns, no angel can touch or pass through the flames, or he dies." Castiel explained.

"Okay, so we trap him in a steel cage of holy fire, but one question. How the hell do we get him here?" Dean questioned as he stepped back.

"Very simple. There's, well, almost an open phone line between a vessel and his angel. One just has to know how to dial." The angel explained.

He leaned down to Donnie's ear and began chanting in a language that neither of them understood and assumed to be Enochian.

"I'm here, Raphael. Come and get me, you little bastard." Castiel growled as he backed away and stepped out of the circle.

Elena looked back at him, smiling slightly and not knowing whether to proud or ashamed that they'd corrupted the angel to the point of cursing.

"Just out of curiosity, what is the average customer wait time to speak to an archangel?" Dean asked as they waited.

"Be ready." Cas warned them, lighting a match and dropping it on the oil, which bursted into a ring of flame.

* * *

"Well that's a day I'll never get back." Dean sighed as they pulled up to the cabin to get their weapons that they left there and take them back to the motel room that Elena had rented.

They waited around for an hour and Raphael didn't show up so they decided to go ahead and leave town, much to Castiel's disappointment. They walked up to the house and walked in. Castiel stopped short and grabbed their arms.

"Wait." He said, pulling them back.

There was a bright light and they looked to see Raphael's vessel standing in there. Lightning flashed as his wings were revealed as lightbulbs shattered around them.

"Castiel." Raphael said, narrowing his eyes at them.

"Raphael." Cas acknowledgd as they walked closer.

"And I thought you were supposed to be impressive. All you do is black out the room." Dean scoffed.

"And the Eastern Seaboard." The archangel shot back as more lightning flashed outside. "It is a testament to my unending mercy that I do not smite you here and now."

"Or maybe you're full of crap. Maybe you're afraid God will bring Cas back to life again and smite you and your candy-ass skirt. By the way, hi, I'm Dean. This is Elena." Dean said with a smirk as he handed her a beer from the table and she took it, taking a long sip.

"I know who you are. And now, thanks to him, I know where you are." Raphael said, glancing between them.

"You won't kill them. You wouldn't dare." Castiel said, walking to stand in front of them.

Elena rolled her eyes and stepped around to stand on one side of him as Dean stood on the other.

"But I will take him to Michael." Raphael threatened.

"Well then. Sounds terrifying. It does. But, uh, hate to tell you, I'm not going anywhere with you." Dean said before taking a drink of his own beer.

"Surely you remember Zachariah giving you stomach cancer? And killing your girl here?" Raphael asked, looking at Elena.

"Yeah… that was hilarious." Elena snapped, glaring at him.

"Well, he doesn't have anything close to my imagination."

"Yeah? I bet you didn't imagine one thing." Dean said, raising an eyebrow at the angel.

"What?" Raphael scoffed, positive that they didn't know anything he didn't know.

"We knew you were coming, you stupid son of a bitch." Dean growled, lighting his lighter and throwing it onto the ground.

The holy oil ignited and formed a circle around Raphael, who didn't flinch but instead glared at Dean.

"Don't look at me, it was his idea." Dean said, pointing at Castiel with a smirk.

Cas turned to give him a look before focusing back on the furious archangel.

"Where is he?" he demanded.

"God? Didn't you hear? He's dead, Castiel. Dead." Raphael informed him in an emotionless voice.

"You're lying." Castiel snapped.

"Am I? Do you remember the twentieth century? Think the twenty-first is going any better? Do you think God would have let any of that happen if he were alive?"

"Oh yeah? Well then who invented the Chinese basket trick?" Dean asked, chuckling at his joke.

"Careful. That's my father you're talking about, boy." Raphael snapped as Elena sniggered too, shaking her head at the hunter's immaturity.

"Yeah, who would be so proud to know his sons started the frigging apocalypse." Dean scoffed.

"Who ran off and disappeared. Who left no instructions and a world to run." Raphael said, turning back to glare at Cas.

"Daddy ran away and disappeared. He didn't happen to work for the post office, did he?" Elena let out a giggle and shook her head as Castiel let out a small smile at the joke that he shared with the two now.

"This is funny to you? You're living in a godless universe." Raphael informed them.

"And? What, you and the other kids just decided to throw an apocalypse while he was gone?" Elena fired back.

"We're tired. We just want it to be over. We just want... paradise." Raphael said.

"So, what, God dies and makes you the boss and you decide you can do whatever you want?" Dean asked.

"Yes. And whatever we want, we get." Raphael said, turning his eyes on Elena and she knew that he was talking about Zachariah's offer.

"_We want him to be Michael's vessel and what we want to happen almost always happens. Wait… what am I saying? What we want __**always**__ happens." _

Zachariah's words echoed through her head like they always seemed to now. Were all of the angels behind the plan to blackmail her into making Dean say yes? Were all of them going to be furious when they found out that she didn't give a shit what they wanted, that she was never going to convince Dean to do such a thing?

"If God is dead, why have I returned? Who brought me back?" Cas demanded, pulling Elena out of her thoughts.

"Did it ever occur to you that maybe Lucifer raised you?" Raphael said.

Castiel's eyes widened and he looked terrified at the thought.

"No." he said, shaking his head.

"Think about it. He needs all the rebellious angels he can find. You know it adds up." Raphael said with a smirk.

"Let's go." Cas said, grabbing Elena's hand and turning to walk out with Dean following them.

"Castiel, I'm warning you. Do not leave me here. I will find you." the archangel threatened.

Cas looked back at him, sizing him up.

"Maybe one day. But today, you're my little bitch." The angel said before turning to walk out.

"What he said." they heard Dean say proudly as he grabbed the weapons bag and walked out behind them.

* * *

Elena was sitting in the backseat, allowing Cas to sit up front with Dean. The angel in question was staring out the window with a pensive expression.

"You okay?" Dean asked.

Castiel remained silent and Dean looked back at Elena before sighing and nodding.

"Look, I'll be the first to tell you that this little crusade of yours is nuts, but I do know a little something about missing fathers." He said.

"What do you mean?" Cas finally replied, turning to look at Dean with a furrowed brow.

I mean every time I was looking for my dad when all logic said that he was dead, but I knew in my heart he was still alive. Who cares what some ninja turtle says, Cas, what do you believe?" Dean asked him, making Elena smile as his attempt to help the angel.

"I believe he's out there." Castiel said, sounding hopeful.

"Good. Go find him." Dean nodded.

"What about you?" Cas asked, looking back at Elena.

"What about me? I don't know. Honestly, I'm good. I can't believe I'm saying that because you know, apocalypse… but I am, I'm really good." Dean said, smiling at Elena through the rearview mirror.

"Even without your brother?" the angel asked, making Elena's breath catch in her throat.

She missed Sam but she wasn't sure whether or not Dean missed his brother.

"Especially without my brother. I mean, I spent so much time worrying about the son of a bitch. I mean, I've had more fun with you two in the past twenty-four hours than I've had with Sam in years, and, no offense Cas, but you're not that much fun. It's funny, you know, I've been so chained to my family, but now that I'm without any of them, hell, I'm happy." Dean said.

Elena was too busy staring at him with disbelief in her eyes that she didn't notice Castiel disappear from the passenger seat.

* * *

"Sam. Sam." A voice whispered.

Sam shot up and looked around to see Jess lying next to him in the bed. He'd been seeing her ever since he left Dean and Elena and he wasn't sure if she was a hallucination or a dream. She smiled at him and reached out to stroke his cheek.

"So. This is your life now? Think you can just live forever with your head buried in the sand? That you can work at a bar under an alias and try to forget about everything you know?" she asked, looking up at him.

He stared at her with surprise but the only words he could find were ones that didn't answer her question at all.

"I love you, Jess." He said, staring at her.

"Sam, you can't keep ignoring everything. Things are happening and you belong out there dealing with them. You can't change, Sam. You need to go deal with them."

He sighed, shaking his head as he sat up.

"God knows how much I miss you, too. But you're wrong. People can change. There is reason for hope."

"No, Sam. There isn't." she said, sitting up as well.

Sam was facing away from her so he didn't see her features transform into a blonde man.

"How can you be so sure?" Sam asked, staring down at his hands.

"Because you freed me." he said.

Sam jumped off of the bed and whirled around, backing away from him.

"That's right. You know who I am." The man said, sliding off of the bed and standing there.

"Lucifer." Sam said.

"You are a hard one to find, Sam. Harder than most humans. I don't suppose you'd tell me where you are?" Lucifer asked.

"What do you want with me?" Sam demanded.

"Thanks to you, I walk the earth. I want to give you a gift. I want to give you everything." Lucifer shrugged.

"I don't want anything from you." Sam snapped.

"I'm so sorry, Sam, I… I really am, but Nick here is just an improvisation. Plan B. He can barely contain me without spontaneously combusting." He said, gesturing down to the meatsuit he was wearing.

"What are you talking about?" Sam asked.

"Why do you think you were in that chapel?" Lucifer asked, moving closer to him. "You're the one, Sam. You're my vessel. My true vessel."

Sam's eyes widened and he shook his head, refusing to accept that."

"No."

"Yes." Lucifer nodded.

"No. That'll never happen." Sam said stubbornly.

"I'm sorry, but it will. I will find you. And when I do, you will let me in. I'm sure of it."

"You need my consent." Sam realized.

"Of course. I'm an angel." Lucifer said as if it was obvious.

"I will kill myself before letting you in." Sam snapped, backing away.

"I'll just bring you back." Lucifer said before sighing. "Sam. My heart breaks for you. The weight on your shoulders, what you've done, what you still have to do. It is more than anyone could bear. If there was some other way... but there isn't. I will never lie to you. I will never trick you. But you will say yes to me."

"You're wrong." Sam fought back.

"I'm not. I think I know you better than you know yourself." Lucifer said.

"Why me?" Sam asked, his heart pounding out of his chest as he looked down at the ground and the weight of this crushing blow bore down on his shoulders.

"Because it had to be you, Sam. It always had to be you."

Sam gasped and sat up in the bed, looking around to see that he was alone in the room.

"This is bad." He murmured.

* * *

**Author's Note: I hope that was okay. Next chapter is the future episode and it will be in Dean's point of view. I will give you a hint, Elena is in the chapter but she just so happens to be future Elena instead of present Elena.**

**REVIEW PLEASE!**

**Elena's outfits are on profile.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: I do not own TVD or Supernatural**

**Thanks to TheElegantFaerie, diehardromantic, DrawingMyHeartOut, RHatch89, xxPaige23xx, Dark-Supernatural-Angel, Dark Alana, Hollywood17, Slytherin Cat, MrsMaeveSalvatoreMikaelson, Nyssandria, MaddAlice, neontreeslover, LineChokor, Nicole0203, schoch26, RachReadsAlot, and slayerdiaries for reviewing!**

**A few things:**

**1. There is a TVD character in this chapter.**

**2. Some of Elena's new abiliites are revealed, but not in the way that you think they will be. Just pay close attention to future Elena.**

**3. Enjoy!**

* * *

It had been ten days. Ten days since Zachariah gave her the ultimatum. Nine days since they'd seen Sam. A week since they'd seen Cas. They just finished cleaning out a nest of vampires in Sumpter, Oregon and now they were in Kansas City. She was staring out of the window as they drove through the town and came to a stop at a motel.

"You all right?" Dean asked, troubled by her silence.

She looked over at him and sighed.

"I miss Sam." She said plainly.

He stared at her for a moment before sighing as well.

"Sam is gone, Elena." he said.

"You don't know that. If you just called him… if you tried…"

"You don't think I've tried? I've tried for a lot longer than you've ever known us! This was always going to happen!" Dean snapped, glaring at the ceiling wheel.

Elena stared at him with a shocked expression at his outbrust before her face formed an icy glare.

"Fine." She said simply before she climbed out of the Impala with him.

They grabbed their bags out of the back and walked towards the motel to get a room. It was the end of the discussion, for now. A religious man stopped them, looking wide-eyed at Dean.

"Excuse me, friends, but have you taken time out to think about God's plan for you?" he asked.

Dean raised an eyebrow at him.

"Too friggin' much, pal." He snapped and Elena looked back as they were walking into the motel to see the man still staring at them.

As Dean checked into the motel, Elena stood a little ways back and pulled out her phone. She quickly dialed the number and held it to her ear as she glared at Dean's back. The man at the desk noticed her glare and shifted uncomfortably at the icy atmosphere around the two.

"Hello?" the voice said.

"Hey, Jer." She replied, smiling slightly at hearing him alive and well.

"Hey. How are you? Is everything all right?" Jeremy asked.

"Yeah, everything is fine. How is Mystic Falls? Anything weird going on there?" she asked.

She'd talked to Jeremy, Alaric, Caroline, and Bonnie since the apocalypse started but she hadn't told them about it. They would want to help and she didn't want any of them mixed up in this.

"Nope, it's actually pretty normal. I guess that comes with having the Originals claiming the town and basically standing guard over it." Jeremy said.

"And the Originals are all behaving?" she asked, nodding at Dean as he gestured for her to follow him.

"I mean, yeah. Klaus sometimes gets pretty pissed that he doesn't know how to make hybrids but he gets over it real fast when his siblings kick his ass." Jeremy said and she could hear the amusement in his voice.

"Yeah, I bet." She said, letting out a chuckle.

"There's a theory that it's your blood." Her little brother said.

"Well if it is, Klaus is gonna have to get over it." she replied simply.

"Yeah I figured that would be your reaction. When are you gonna come see us again?" he asked.

"As soon as I can, Jer." She said softly.

"All right. I guess I can deal with that. I love you, 'Lena. But I gotta go to class." He said.

"Yeah, right. Have a good day, Jer. Love you too." She said before hanging up the phone as they walked into the motel room.

"Everything all right in Mystic Falls?" Dean asked as they set their stuff down.

"Yep." Elena answered shortly.

"Listen… about Sam…"

Dean was interrupted by his phone ringing in his pocket.

"It's Cas." He said before flipping it open.

She turned to go to the bathroom, taking her bag with her so that she could wash her face. When she came back, Dean was standing in the kitchenette still talking.

"We're talking about the Colt, right? I mean, as in the Colt?" he asked, catching Elena's attention as she sat on the bed.

He stared at her before putting the phone on speaker so that she could hear as well..

"We are." Castiel's voice said over the phone.

"Well, that doesn't make any sense. I mean, why would the demons keep a gun around that, uh, kills demons?" Dean scoffed.

They heard the distinct sound of a car over the phone and Castiel's staticky voice.

"What? What? Did… I didn't… I didn't get that." the angel said loudly.

Dean laughed at the frustration in the angel's voice.

"You know, it's kind of funny. Talking to a messenger of God on a cellphone. It's, you know, like watching a Hell's Angel ride a moped." The hunter chuckled.

"This isn't funny, Dean. The voice says I'm almost out of minutes." Cas said grumpily.

"Okay, all right. I'm… I'm telling you, Cas, the mooks have melted down the gun by now." Dean said, trying to be serious now.

"Well, I hear differently. And if it's true and if you are still set on the insane task of killing the devil, this is how we do it." Castiel said.

"Okay. Where do we start?" Elena said before Dean could throw out another snarky remark.

"Hello Elena. Where are you now?" he asked.

"Kansas City." Dean said.

"Century Hotel, room 113." Elena finished for him.

"I'll be there immediately." Cas confirmed.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. No, no, come on, man. We just drove like sixteen hours straight, okay? We're human. And there's stuff we got to do." Dean said.

"What stuff?" Cas asked suspiciously as if he really didn't want to know what they were doing in a motel room alone.

"Eat, for example. In this case, sleep. We just need like four hours once in a while, okay?" Dean asked.

"Yes." Castiel sighed, sounding frustrated with their needs.

"Okay, so, you can pop in tomorrow morning." Dean nodded.

"Yes. I'll just…" Dean hung up the phone.

"You shouldn't be mean to him." Elena said, reaching out to brush her hand through Dean's hair.

"It's not mean. It's practical. I'm tired." he grumbled, lying back.

Elena stood and pulled off her pants, pulling on sweatpants before climbing into bed on the opposite side of where he was lying, facing away from him.

"Elena…" he began.

"I don't want to talk about it. Like you said, you and Sam have been dealing with this since before I knew you. You know what to do better than I do." She snapped, cutting him off.

"I didn't mean that." he sighed.

"No that's exactly what you meant. Just… go to sleep." Elena fired back and silence filled the room.

* * *

Dean's eyes popped open as he heard his phone vibrating. He reached over and grabbed it, trying not to wake up Elena.

"Damn it, Cas, I need to sleep!" he growled.

"Dean, it's me." Dean sat up and rubbed his eyes before looking over at the clock.

"Sam? It's quarter past four." He said sleepily.

"This is important." Sam said before launching into the story of what happened with his dreams.

Dean sighed and stood, walking to pull a beer out of the fridge and then he sat at the table.

"So, you're his vessel, huh? Lucifer's wearing you to the prom?" he asked.

"That's what he said." Sam confirmed.

"Just when you thought you were out, they pull you back in, huh, Sammy?" Dean sighed, sipping at the bottle.

"So, that's it? That's your response?" Sam asked, sounding annoyed.

"What are you looking for?" Dean replied.

"I don't know. A... a little panic? Maybe?" Sam said, sounding as though the answer was obvious.

"I guess I'm a little numb to the earth-shattering revelations at this point." Dean shrugged, looking over at where Elena was fast asleep on the bed.

"What are we gonna do about it?" Sam asked.

"What do you want to do about it?" Dean answered.

"I want back in, for starters." Sam replied instantly.

"Sam…" Dean sighed.

"I mean it. I am sick of being a puppet to these sons of bitches. I'm gonna hunt him down, Dean." The younger brother said over the phone.

"Oh, so, we're back to revenge, then, are we? Yeah, 'cause that worked out so well last time." Dean scoffed as he propped his legs up on the the table.

"Not revenge. Redemption." Sam corrected him.

"So, what, you're just gonna walk back in and we're gonna be the dynamic trio again?" Dean questioned.

"Look, Dean, I can do this. I can. I'm gonna prove it to you." Sam said pleadingly.

"Look, Sam… it doesn't matter… whatever we do. I mean, it turns out that you and me, we're the… uh, the fire and the oil of the Armageddon. You know, on that basis alone, we should just pick a hemisphere. Stay away from each other for good." Dean said, regretting the words as he said them but he had the feeling that they were the right words to say.

"Dean, it does not have to be like this. We can fight it." Sam sighed.

"Yeah, you're right. We can. But not together. We're not stronger when we're together, Sam. I think we're weaker. Because whatever we have between us… love, family, whatever it is… they are always gonna use it against us. And you know that. Yeah, we're better off apart. We got a better chance of dodging Lucifer and Michael and this whole damn thing, if we just go our own ways." Dean said, knowing that Elena would be glaring at him for saying these words if she was awake.

"Dean, don't do this." Sam begged.

"Bye, Sam." Dean said before hanging up.

Elena shifted restlessly in the bed and he sighed, walking to lie on his side of the bed once again.

* * *

Dean jerked awake, wondering why the bed suddenly felt so uncomfortable underneath him and why the room was so cold and why he didn't feel Elena next to him. He opened his eyes and sat up, looking around the destroyed room with panicked confusion. He stood slowly and walked to the window to see the city around the motel. It was trashed. As he walked out of the motel and into the street, he noticed that the area was devastated. Everything was broken in some way. While he walked down the deserted street, he heard something that sounded like glass breaking down an alley. He walked into it to investigate and found a young girl with a teddy bear sifting through garbage.

"Little girl? Little girl?" he said, approaching her.

She didn't answer him, just continuing on her quest through the trash.

"Are you hurt?" he questioned.

Still no reaction and he was beginning to feel anxious.

"You know the not-talking thing is kind of creepy, right?" he informed her.

She turned her head to him slowly and he found that she had a crazed look in her eyes and blood was dripping from her mouth. She shrieked and launched at him with a shard of glass in her hand. He pushed her to the wall and backed away before looking around wildly. He caught sight of a red word graffiti'd on the brick wall.

**CROATOAN**

"Oh, shit." He said, turning to see a group of people with the same crazed look dart around the corner.

Dean turned to run away with them chasing him. He ran for two blocks before turning onto a street that was blocked by a chain-link fence. He looked up just in time to see several soldiers on tanks arrive on the other side of the fence, shooting at the infected people. He darted away from them and tried to hide from the bullets. He heard music start and stared around with wide eyes as 'Do you Love Me' by The Contours began to play. He began weaving through large boxes that were shielding him from the gunfire as he tried to escape from the scene.

When he finally made it to the safety of an alley, he inhaled deeply and slid down to hide until the soldiers went away. Once the activity had ceased thirty minutes later and the tanks drove away, he climbed out and walked to the direction of the fence to see that they'd cleared all of the bodies out. He walked up to the fence to see a sign posted there.

**CROATOAN**

**VIRUS**

**HOT ZONE**

**NO ENTRY**

**BY ORDER OF ACTING REGIONAL COMMAND**

**AUGUST 1, 2014**

**KANSAS CITY**

"2014." He breathed, looking around with wide eyes.

* * *

After finding a truck that had enough gas to make it to Sioux Falls, Dean tried to work the radio but only received static.

"That's never a good sign." He muttered.

"Croatoan pandemic reaches Australia." Dean stared and turned to glare at Zachariah, who was sitting in the passenger seat reading a newspaper.

"I thought I smelled your stink on this Back to the Future crap." He snapped, glaring at the angel.

"President Palin defends bombing of Houston. Certainly a buyer's market in real estate. Let's see what's happening in sports. That's right… no more sports. Congress revoked the right to group assembly. What's left of Congress, that is. Hardly a quorum, if you ask me." Zachariah said, ignoring Dean's anger.

"How did you find me? Where's Elena?" Dean demanded.

"Afraid we had to tap some unorthodox resources of late… human informants. We've been making inspirational visits to the fringier Christian groups. They've been given your image, told to keep an eye out. And Elena is still back at the motel safe and sound and sleeping." the angel explained, folding up the newspaper before turning to face him.

"The Bible freak outside the motel… he, what, dropped a dime on me?" Dean questioned with an unamused expression.

"Onward, Christian soldiers." Zachariah said dramatically.

"Okay, well, good, great. You have had your jollies. Now send me back, you son of a bitch." Dean growled.

"Oh, you'll get back… all in good time. We want you to marinate a bit." He said, shrugging as he turned to look out the window at the countryside.

"Marinate?" Dean said, confused.

"Three days, Dean. Three days to see where this course of action takes you." Zachariah shrugged.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means that your choices have consequences. This is what happens to the world if you continue to say no to Michael. Have a little look-see." Zachariah said with a smirk before vanishing from the truck.

* * *

"Bobby? Bobby, I'm coming in!" Dean called as he walked into the house.

He looked aroudn to see that the place was thoroughly destroyed and covered in dust and spiderwebs. No one had been there for a while. When he walked into the study, his heart dropped.

"Oh, no." he said, pulling the wheelchair up from its sideways position to see bullet holes and dried blood on the back of it.

"Where is everybody, Bobby?" he said, devastated as he looked around the trashed house.

He walked to the fireplace and pulled out the hidden compartment that Bobby always said would have the most important information that they would ever need in it. He sighed with relief when he pulled out his father's journal and opened it to flip through. He immediatley found a picture of Bobby sitting in the wheelchair with four men, one of them being Cas. They were all holding rifles and looking somber.

"Camp Chitaqua." He read, noticing the sign that was behind them and in front of a chain-link fence.

* * *

Dean looked around as he snuck through the grass in front of the fence surrounding Camp Chitaqua. He hid behind the sign when two men with guns patrolled past the fence. When they were gone, he walked to the fence silently and peeked in to see the Impala sitting about fifty yards into the area, smahsed up and rusted.

"Oh, baby, no." he whimpered before climbing up the fence and dropping over it.

He approached the car for a better look and peeked inside the driver's side that was missing a door.

"Oh, no, baby, what did they do to you?" he said, putting his hands on the steering wheel.

He heard a noise and barely had time to turn around before he felt something slam into his head and darkness overtook him.

* * *

Dean's eyes fluttered open as he slowly woke up with a killer headache. He looked around to see that he was in what looked like a recreation room complete with pool tables and a meeting table. He attempted to stand up but found that he was chained to a ladder that was behind him. He looked around with wide eyes to catch sight of someone sitting in a chair cleaning a shotgun. That person was familiar. Really really familiar.

"What the hell?" Dean demanded, panicking.

"I should be asking that question, don't you think? In fact, why don't you give me one good reason why I shouldn't gank you right here and now?" the exact copy of him demanded.

Dean stared at him for a moment before realizing what was happening. This was 2014 and he was looking at a future version of himself.

"Because you'd only be hurting yourself." He suggested weakly.

"Very funny." Future Dean snapped, unamused.

"Look, man… I'm no shapeshifter or demon or anything, okay?" Dean assured him.

"Yeah, I know. I did the drill while you were out. Silver, salt, holy water—nothing. But you know what was funny? Was that you had every hidden lockpick, box cutter, and switchblade that I carry. Now, you want to explain that? Oh, and the, uh, resemblance, while you're at it?" Future Dean requested, putting the gun that he was cleaning on the table.

"Zachariah." Dean said quickly.

A deeper scowl formed on Future Dean's face and he stood up slowly.

"Come again?" he growled.

"I'm you from 2009. Zach plucked me from my bed and threw me five years into the future." Dean explained.

"Where is he? I want to talk to him." Future Dean demanded.

"I don't know."

"Oh, you don't know." Future Dean scoffed.

"No, I don't know. Look, I just want to get back to my own friggin' year, okay?" Dean snapped, getting frustrated with his future self.

"Okay. If you're me, then tell me something only I would know." Future Dean said, squatting in front of him to get on face level.

Dean thought about it for a moment before smirking.

"Rhonda Hurley. We were, uh, nineteen. She made us try on her panties. They were pink. And satiny. And you know what? We kind of liked it." Dean said, grinning at the end of the explanation.

"Touché." Future Dean said, nodding before he stood to walk back to his chair. "So, what, Zach zapped you up here to see how bad it gets?"

"I guess. Croatoan virus, right? That's their endgame?" Dean asked, shifting uncomfortably at his place on the ground.

"It's efficient, it's incurable, and it's scary as hell. Turns people into monsters. Started hitting the major cities about two years ago. World really went in the crapper after that." Future Dean informed him, picking up the gun.

"What about Sam?" Dean asked.

Future Dean went still and avoided his eyes.

"Heavyweight showdown in Detroit. From what I understand, Sam didn't make it."

"You weren't with him?" Dean questioned, saddened by the news.

"No. No, me and Sam, we haven't talked in… hell, five years." Dean sighed.

"We never tried to find him?" Dean asked.

"We had other people to worry about." Future Dean said, shaking his head as he turned to walk out.

"Where you going?" Dean demanded.

"I got to run an errand."

"Whoa. You're just gonna leave me here?" Dean asked.

"Yes. I got a camp full of twitchy trauma survivors out there with an apocalypse hanging over their head. The last thing they need to see is a version of The Parent Trap. So, yeah, you stay locked down." Future Dean said gruffly.

"Okay. All right. Fine. But you don't have to cuff me, man. Oh, come on. You don't trust yourself?" Dean pleaded as future Dean turned to walk to the door.

"No. Absolutely not." He said, shaking his head as he walked out the door.

"Dick." Dean said before he began to pry a nail out of the floor to pick himself out of the handcuffs.

* * *

He descended the stairs after walking out of the cabin and and suddenly, someone rounded the corner and came right at him.

"Hey, Dean. You got a second?" Chuck said, looking up at him with a stressed explanation.

"No… yes. Uh, I… I guess. Hi, Chuck." Dean said, looking around with wide eyes as he wondered what to do.

"Hi. So, uh, listen, we're pretty good on canned goods for now, but we're down to next to nothing on perishables and… and hygiene supplies. People are not gonna be happy about this. So, what do you think we should do?" Chuck asked.

"I… I don't know. Maybe, uh, share? You know, like at a kibbutz." Dean suggested, unsure of what else to say.

"Wait a minute. Aren't you supposed to be out on a mission right now?" Chuck asked, confused.

"Absolutely. And I will be." Dean nodded, wanting out of this conversation.

"Uh-oh." Chuck said with wide eyes.

Dean turned in time to see a woman come up from behind him and try to punch him. Dean ducked in time and darted behind Chuck as Elena advanced on him.

"Whoa! Jeez! Easy!"

Dean dove behind Chuck and hid from her furious expression. He quickly figured out that this was future Elena. And future Elena looked terrifying. She was wearing a pair of jeans tucked into boots with a white t-shirt and a black jacket. Her hair was falling around her shoulders in her natural waves and her dark eyes were blazing with rage.

"You spent the night in Jane's cabin last night, didn't you?" Elena spat, fury emanating from every pore of her body.

Dean's eyes widened as he thought of what she was implying. Was future him cheating on Elena? His Elena? His girl? Was he that much of a dick in the future?

"Uh, what? I… I don't… I wouldn't… did I?" Dean said, looking at Chuck who nodded.

Elena glared at him.

"You are such a fucking asshole!" she screamed and Dean suddenly became hyperaware of the gun that was stowed away at her hip.

"Oh you would be so lucky for me to shoot you." she snapped as she noticed his eyes flicker to it.

"Hi, Elena." Chuck said, sounding terrified.

"Screw you." Elena snapped.

"Oh, jeez. I'm getting busted for stuff I haven't even done yet." Dean muttered, stunned at the fact that future him was cheating on Elena.

"What?" Chuck said as Elena narrowed her eyes at him suspiciously.

"Uh, never mind. Hey, Elena, is... Cas still here?" Dean asked hesitantly, afraid to anger her further in case she really did decide to shoot him.

"Of course he is, you won't let him go on missions with you anymore." she said icily.

"Right. Of course. Uh, where is his cabin again?" he asked.

"Of course you forgot where his cabin is. You haven't been there in a year." She said before turning to walk away.

"You're supposed to follow her." Chuck whispered.

Elena whirled around to shoot him a glare and he kicked his ass into gear as he followed her. As they walked, Elena suddenly stopped short and turned to him.

"What year are you from?" she demanded, narrowing her eyes.

"What? Uh… how did you know?" he asked.

"Because I know you. I just didn't want to freak Chuck out. The guy is scared enough already. So when are you from?" Elena asked, advancing on him.

"2009." He said.

She stopped short and sadness reflected in her eyes for a moment.

"2009?" she took a few steps away from him and turned around.

"Hey." He said, walking forward to touch her arm.

She jerked away from him before looking up at his surprised expression. Her dark eyes softened and she reached up to stroke his cheek.

"I forgot…" she breathed.

"What?" he questioned.

"How you used to be. So kind… and tender." She murmured, a hint of the Elena that he was used to breaking through her tough exterior.

"What happened to me?" he asked, concern for her coming out more than worry for himself.

Her gaze hardened again and she yanked her hand back as if she was burned.

"You stopped giving a shit. You stopped giving a shit about anything except for hunting down the devil." She snapped before turning to walk off again.

Dean sighed and rubbed his forehead, really wishing that he could go back to his time again. But, then again, the Elena in that time wasn't too happy with him either. They stepped into another cabin and he saw Castiel sitting on the floor with a group of girls. He was wearing normal clothes instead of his usual trenchcoat and suit. His face had a beard and he was scruffy all around.

"So, in this way. We're each a fragment of total perception… just, uh, one compartment in that dragonfly eye of group mind. Now, the key to this total, shared perception… it's, um, it's surprisingly physical." Cas said, smiling around at the women.

He finally spotted Dean and Elena.

"Oh. Excuse me, ladies. I think I need to confer with our fearless leaders for a minute. Why not go get washed up for the orgy?" he asked, causing Dean to look at him with wide eyes as Elena didn't even flinch at the words.

The woman stood and smiled at them as they filed to the back of the cabin.

"You're all so beautiful." Castiel said as he stood and stretched, grunting quietly.

"What are you, a hippie?" Dean asked, walking forward as Elena remained back.

"I thought you'd gotten over trying to label me." Cas said, popping his neck.

"Cas, we got to talk." Dean said as he turned to look at him.

"Whoa. Strange." Cas said, staring at him with wide eyes.

"What?" Dean asked.

"You... are not you. Not now you, anyway." He said.

"No! Yeah. Yes, exactly." Dean nodded emphatically.

"What year are you from?" Cas asked.

"2009." Elena said as Dean looked at him with a confused expression.

"Who did this to you? Is it Zachariah?"

"Yes." Dean nodded.

"Interesting." He said, staring at Dean.

"Oh, yeah, it's friggin' fascinating. Now. Why don't you strap on your angel wings and fly me back to my page on the calendar?" Dean demanded.

Castiel let out a chuckle as he shook his head.

"I wish I could just, uh, strap on my wings, but I'm sorry, no dice." He said, still laughing.

"What, are you stoned?" Dean asked as Elena walked further into the room.

"Generally? Yeah he is." Elena said, staring at Cas as she sat on his desk.

"What happened to you? Both of you?" Dean demanded, looking between them.

"Life." they said at the same time.

Suddenly the door slammed open and someone came flying in.

"If you're going to have your disgusting orgies, stop stealing my shit!" the words flew out of the female's mouth as she stomped in and snatched a pile of lace off of the bed.

Castiel grinned at the woman as Dean stared between her and Elena with a shocked expression.

"What the hell?" he mumbled.

Elena's lookalike turned to face him with a confused expression as well.

"I thought he was out on a mission." Katherine said, narrowing her eyes at him.

"Dean is. This isn't our Dean. He's from the past." Elena explained.

Katherine looked over at her before looking back at him. "Fucking angels." She sighed.

"Agreed." Elena nodded.

"Why the hell are you here? And not trying to kill Elena? Last time I heard, you tried to kill her every chance you got." Dean said, confused as hell.

"Oh he is from the past." Katherine said with a smirk as she walked over to Elena and threw her arm around her shoulders.

Elena leaned into her and sighed.

"Like I said, everything has changed." She said to Dean. "Nothing brings you together like a worldwide virus turning everyone into violent maniacs. That and the fact that Mystic Falls…"

"Stop, Kat." Elena said quickly, looking panicked for a moment.

"What? He doesn't deserve to know?" Katherine asked.

"He doesn't need to know." Elena said, sliding off of the table to turn and walk out.

Dean stared at Castiel and Katherine before turning to follow her.

"Hey! What happened to Mystic Falls?" he asked, catching up with her and whirling her around.

She grabbed his arms and shoved him into a tree, her right arm going to his throat to pin him there.

"Don't do that." she snapped.

"You're stronger." He said, unable to struggle with her vice-like grip.

She stared at him for a moment with confusion.

"I haven't gotten my other abilities in your time. Not yet." She said, looking surprised.

"What do you mean, other abilities?" he asked.

She shook her head and stepped away.

"They'll be back soon. You're gonna want to be back in that room when Dean… this time's Dean… gets back." she said, gesturing to the cabin.

"What happened to Mystic Falls?" he asked again.

She turned her eyes on him and sighed.

"It's more like what happened to Virginia. It was almost competely infected. So the government dropped bombs on the whole thing. It was the first place to be bombed in the states. No one made it out." she said, trying and failing to hide the emotion form her voice.

"I'm… I'm sorry." He said, feeling his heart break for the sadness in her voice.

"Don't." she snapped, jerking away from him and turning to walk in the direction of the cabin that future Dean left him in.

* * *

They had to suffer through an hour of silence in which Dean stared at future Elena and she stared anywhere but at him. Dean wanted to ask about Bobby but he was too scared to know the answer. The awkward silence was finally broken when they heard cars arriving. Elena jumped up to walk out and shot him a glare when he turned to follow her.

"Stop me, then." He said.

She rolled her eyes and turned to walk out. They watched from the shadows as future Dean climbed out with another guy, one that Dean recognized from the picture he found at Bobby's. Future Dean pulled two beers and tossed one to the other guy. The man nodded gratefully as he turned and walked away, drinking out of the bottle. Future Dean suddenly drew his gun and pointed it at the back of the guy's head.

"Hey. Hey! Watch out!" Dean shouted, darting out of the shadows.

He was too late and future Dean shot the soldier with a blank expression. Elena walked out of the shadows as well with Castiel and Katherine showing up too. The other soldiers all looked between the two Deans with shocked expressions.

"Damn it." Future Dean growled, glaring at Dean before he turned to address the soldiers.

"I'm not gonna lie to you. Me and him… it's a pretty messed-up situation we got going. But believe me, when you need to know something, you will know it. Until then, we all have work to do." He said, narrowing his eyes at them.

They all nodded and turned to walk off, glancing back at them before continuing their retreat from the group. Elena walked forward and stood directly in front of future Dean. Her eyes searched his body for injuries and, when she didn't find any, she reared back and punched him in the face.

"Son of a bitch!" Future Dean yelled, stumbled backwards.

Elena just glared at him.

"Were you gonna tell me about him?" she demanded, pointing back at Dean.

"In my own time, sweetheart." Future Dean snapped.

"Yeah well that doesn't work for me and you know it. Next time I'd better be the first person you call. You might have everyone else around here running around and doing your bidding by you know damn well that I'm not one of your soldiers." She said, her eyes blazing with fury.

"Fine." Future Dean snapped, making her even angrier as she turned to walk away from him.

"Come with us." He said as he grabbed Dean by the arm and dragged him in the direction of the same cabin.

Elena glared at his back before following him. When they got to the cabin, future Dean shoved Dean into the cabin and slammed the door as soon as Elena walked in.

"What the hell was that?" future Dean demanded.

"What the hell was that? You just shot a guy in cold blood." Dean shot back, angry too.

"We were in an open quarantine zone. Got ambushed by some Croats on the way out."

Dean stared at him with a confused expression.

"Croats. Croatoans. One of them infected Yeager." Future Dean explained.

"How do you know?" Dean asked.

"Cause after a few years of this, I know. I started seeing symptoms about a half an hour ago. Wasn't gonna be long before he flipped. I didn't see the point in troubling a good man with bad news."

Dean looked at Elena with an incredulous look and saw that she was staring down at her feet.

"Troubling a good man? You just blew him away in front of your own people. Don't you think that freaked them out a little bit?" Dean demanded.

"It's 2014. Plugging some Croat, it's called commonplace. Trading words with my friggin' clone… that might have freaked them out a little." Future Dean snapped.

"All right, look…" Dean sighed.

"No, you look. This isn't your time. It's mine. You don't make the decisions. I do. So, when I say stay in, you stay in."

"All right, man. I'm sorry. Look, I… I'm not trying to mess you… me… us up here." Dean said, trying to stop the fighting.

"I know." Future Dean nodded before turning to pour three glasses of alcohol.

He handed one to Elena, who practically ripped it out of his hand, before handing one to day.

"It's just been a really wacky weekend." Dean said, staring at her before turning to face future Dean.

"Tell me about it." Future Dean nodded, his eyes flashed to Elena as well as she continued to stand there silently.

"What was the mission, anyway?" Dean asked.

Future Dean reached down and pulled a canvas bag out of his duffle and opened it to reveal something Dean hadn't seen in a while.

"The Colt?" he said as Elena approached the table.

"The Colt." Future Dean nodded.

"Where was it?" he questioned.

"Everywhere. They've been moving it around." Elena said, leaning over the table to take it from Future Dean.

He gave it up willingly and Dean could have sworn that he saw his future self's eyes soften for a moment. But that went away as quickly as it came.

"Took me five years, but... I finally got it. And tonight… tonight, I'm gonna kill the devil." He said triumphantly, turning to look at Dean.

* * *

"So, that's it? That's the Colt?" Katherine asked.

Dean, Elena, Future Dean, Cas, and Katherine were gathered in the cabin looking down at the gun.

"If anything can kill Lucifer, this is it." Future Dean nodded.

"Great. Have we got anything that can find Lucifer?" Elena snapped, glaring at him.

"Are you okay?" Future Dean asked, looking confused at her behavior.

"Oh, we were in, uh, Jane's cabin last night." Dean said, leaning forward to glare at him too, obviously judging himself.

"You want to shut up?" Future Dean growled, glaring at him before turning to Elena.

"We'll talk later, but for now we have to put our feelings aside and plan this." he said as everyone watched them.

"Yeah, right." Elena scoffed, shaking her head before she gestured for him to continue.

"We don't have to find Lucifer. We know where he is. The demon that we caught last week, he was one of the big guy's entourage. He knew." Future Dean said.

"So, a demon tells you where Satan's gonna be, and you just believe it?" Elena asked.

"Oh, trust me, he wasn't lying." Future Dean scoffed and Dean got a bad feeling about how he knew that.

"And you know this how?" Katherine demanded.

"Our fearless leader, I'm afraid, is all too well schooled in the art of getting to the truth." Cas finally spoke up, grinning.

"Torture? Oh, so, we're… we're torturing again." Dean nodded.

Future Dean stared at him as Elena's hands formed fists and her face went pale.

"No, that's… that's good. Classy." Dean said, glaring at him.

Castiel laughed and Future Dean turned to stare at him.

"What? I like past you." Castiel shrugged.

"Lucifer is here. Now. I know the block and I know the building." Future Dean said, pointing to the map.

"Oh, good… it's right in the middle of a hot zone." Cas said.

"Crawling with Croats, yeah. You saying my plan is reckless?" Future Dean demanded.

"Are you saying we, uh, walk in straight up the driveway, past all the demons and the Croats, and we shoot the devil?" Elena spoke up, leaning over Cas' shoulder as he leaned his head back to lie on her arm.

Dean noticed this and wondered just how close future Elena and future Cas were. Then he shook off the thought as it was way too strange to think about.

"Yes." Future Dean confirmed.

"Okay, if you don't like, uh, 'reckless', I could use 'insouciant', maybe." Cas said, still leaning on Elena.

"Are you coming?" Future Dean demanded.

Castiel sighed and leaned up, Elena's arm wrapping around his shoulder as he did so.

"Of course. But why is he? I mean, he's you five years ago. If something happens to him, you're gone, right?" he said, gesturing to Dean.

"He's coming." Future Dean said as if it was the end of things.

"Okay. Well, uh. I'll get the grunts moving." Cas said, standing up.

"We're loaded and on the road by midnight." Future Dean instructed him.

"All righty." Cas said, turning to leave, sliding his hand into Elena's as she moved to follow him.

"Where are you going?" Future Dean asked Elena.

"Away from you." she threw back over her shoulder as Katherine took her other hand, glaring at Future Dean.

Why are you taking me?

"Relax. You'll be fine. Zach's looking after you, right?" Future Dean asked.

"No, that's not what I mean. I want to know what's going on." Dean said, leaning over the table.

Future Dean stared at him for a moment before nodding.

"Yeah, okay. You're coming because I want you to see something. I want you to see our brother." he said.

"Sam? I thought he was dead." Dean replied, confused.

"Sam didn't die in Detroit. He said yes."

There was a long silence.

"Wait. You mean…"

"That's right. The big yes. To the devil. Lucifer's wearing him to the prom." Future Dean said as he placed weapons into a duffle bag.

"Why would he do that?" Dean demanded.

"Wish I knew. But now we don't have a choice. It's in him, and it's not getting out. And we've got to kill him, Dean. And you need to see it… the whole damn thing, how bad it gets… so you can do it different." he said.

"What do you mean?" Dean asked.

"Zach said he was gonna bring you back, right? To '09?"

"Yeah." He nodded.

"Well, when you get back home… you say yes. You hear me? Say yes to Michael." Future Dean instructed him.

"That's crazy. If I let him in, then Michael fights the devil. The battle's gonna torch half the planet." Dean snapped, shaking his head.

"Look around you, man. Half the planet's better than no planet, which is what we have now. If I could do it over again, I'd say yes in a heartbeat." Future Dean said, gesturing around the room.

"So why don't you?" Dean demanded.

"I've tried! I've shouted yes till I was blue in the face! The angels aren't listening! They just… left… gave up! It's too late for me, but for you…" he said, gesturing to Dean.

"Oh, no. There's got to be another way." Dean said, shaking his head stubbornly.

"Yeah, that's what I thought. I was cocky. Never actually thought I'd lose. But I was wrong. Dean. I was wrong. I'm begging you. Say yes."

There was a pause in which they stared at each other.

"But you won't. 'Cause I didn't. Because that's just not us, is it?" he said.

Dean stared back at him.

"Speaking of 'not us'… why the hell are you cheating on Elena?" Dean demanded.

"What?" Future Dean said, confused.

"Jane's cabin? Care to explain that shit?" Dean growled, angry.

"I'm not cheating on her." Future Dean said with a chuckle, shaking his head.

"Then what…" he began.

"Jane is… well she used to be a doctor before all of this. Now… she's sort of my helper." He said.

"Helper?" Dean asked, confused.

"When we capture a demon, I interrogate them and she has all these fancy medicines to keep their fragile meatsuits conscious." Future Dean explained.

"So when Elena said… Jane's cabin…" Dean said.

"I was torturing a demon bitch." Future Dean finished for him.

Dean stared at him before shaking his head.

"That's worse than cheating, man." he scoffed, turning to walk out of the cabin.

* * *

He was walking around the camp waiting for night to fall so that they could leave. Everyone kept giving him hesitant expressions. Finally, he found Elena standing outside of a cabin. Or at least, who he thought was Elena. He was quickly proven wrong.

"I'm Katherine." She said before he could open his mouth.

"Oh." He said, quickly shutting it.

She smirked at him.

"If you're looking for my counterpart, you'll find her in the cabin that future you and her share. She's probably reading some Austen. It's what she likes doing before we go on missions. It's that way." Katherine informed him, pointing in the direction of a cabin standing by itself.

"Oh, thanks." He said, turning to walk off.

"Do me a favor, when you go back into your own time, try not to become an asshole. She loves you too much to leave you but it still affects her… a lot." Katherine said, narrowing her eyes at him.

"Okay." He nodded, unsure of how else to react to that.

When he approached the cabin, he happened to glance in the window before he walked up to the door. He immediately saw a scene that he knew he shouldn't interrupt. Instead he ducked behind a tree to watch like a creeper. His future self was standing with Elena and holding her head in his hands as she looked up at him. Tears were streaming down her face and her lip was trembling. As she let out a sob, he gathered her into his arms. For a moment, Dean was finally seeing himself in his future self. His expression was soft and not the hardened expression he always worse. He was holding Elena to him like she was his lifeline. Dean sighed and slipped away, unsure of what to think about what he just saw.

* * *

Dean hesitantly walked up to the trucks and jeeps that were parked there with Cas just ahead of him.

"So, you're really from '09?" Chuck asked from behind him.

"Yeah, afraid so." he nodded.

"Some free advice? You ever get back there, you hoard toilet paper. You understand me? Hoard it. Hoard it like it's made of gold. Cause it is." Chuck said desperately.

"Thank you, Chuck." Dean nodded, turning to him.

"Oh, you'll thank me, all right. Mark my words." Chuck confirmed.

"I'll see you around." Dean sighed, turning to walk to the jeep that Cas was driving and get in.

* * *

As they drove down the dark road, he looked over to see Cas taking some pills.

"Let me see those." He said, holding his hand out.

"You want some?" Castiel asked.

"Amphetamines?" Dean asked, raising his eyebrow at him.

"It's the perfect antidote to that absinthe." Castiel nodded.

"Mmm. Don't get me wrong, Cas. I, uh. I'm happy that the stick is out of your ass, but… what's going on… w-with the drugs and the orgies and the love-guru crap?" he asked, sounding traumatized.

Castiel suddenly began laughing.

"What's so funny?" Dean asked, confused.

"Dean, I'm not an angel anymore." Cas chuckled.

"What?"

"Yeah, I went mortal." Cas nodded.

"What do you mean? How?" Dean asked.

"I think it had something to do with the other angels leaving. But when they bailed, my mojo just kind of… psshhew… drained away. And now, you know, I'm practically human. I mean, Dean, I'm all but useless. Last year, broke my foot, laid up for two months." He explained.

"Wow." Dean said, unable to reconcile this Cas with the one he knew.

"Yeah." Cas nodded.

"So, you're human. Well, welcome to the club. Dean sighed.

"Thanks. Except I used to belong to a much better club. And now I'm powerless. I'm hapless, I'm hopeless. I mean, why the hell not bury myself in women and decadence, right? It's the end, baby. That's what decadence is for. Why not bang a few gongs before the lights go out? But then that's, that's just how I roll." He shrugged.

* * *

As they parked the cars about a mile away from the hot zone, Dean climbed out and saw Elena and Katherine standing next to each other as Future Dean instructed the soldiers who were gathered. The problem was, Dean couldn't tell which was which. They were wearing the exact same outfit down to the black beanie in their side-braided hair. The only different was that one of them was wearing a black denim jacket while the other was wearing a black leather jacket.

"What the…" he breathed, staring at them.

"They dress the same to confuse the Croats. The infected think they're seeing double and they stop to try to figure out what is going on. That's when we get the drop on them. It's actually a good idea. It's never failed us yet." Cas explained.

When one of them smirked at him and the other gave him a small smile, he instantly knew which was which. Elena was wearing the denim jacket. They finally all turned to walk to the hot zone.

"There. Second-floor window. We go in there." Future Dean said as they ducked behind some trees and looked up at the building.

"You sure about this?" Katherine asked.

"They'll never see us coming. Trust me. Now, weapons check. We're on the move in five." Future Dean said.

"Hey, uh… me. Can I talk to you for a sec?" Dean asked, narrowing his eyes at his future self.

Elena watched as they walked off to the side and both of them could feel her eyes on them.

"Tell me what's going on." Dean said.

"What?" Future Dean asked.

"I know you. You're lying to these people and to me." Dean hissed.

"Is that so?" Future Dean scoffed.

"Yeah. See, I know your lying expressions. I've seen them in the mirror. Now, there's something you're not telling us." Dean said.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Future Dean shrugged.

"Oh, really? Well, I don't seem to be the only member of your posse with some questions, so, uh, maybe I'll just take my doubts over to them." Dean said, turning to walk to the group who was watching them closely.

"Okay, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Wait." Future Dean stopped him.

"What?" Dean snapped.

"Take a look around you, man. This place should be white-hot with Croats. Where are they?" Future Dean said, urging him to think.

"They cleared a path for us. Which means that this is…" Dean said.

"A trap. Exactly." Future Dean nodded.

"Well, then we can't go through the front." Dean said obviously.

"Oh, we're not. They are. They're the decoys. You and me and Elena, we're going in through the back." he said.

Dean stared at him, disbelief filling his mind.

"You mean you're gonna feed your friends into a meat grinder? Cas, too? You want to use their deaths as a diversion?" Dean demanded.

Future Dean looked away, unwiling to look into his judgmental eyes.

"Oh, man, something is broken in you. You're making decisions that I would never make. I wouldn't sacrifice my friends." Dean snapped.

"You're right. You wouldn't. It's one of the main reasons we're in this mess, actually." Future Dean shot back.

"These people count on you. They trust you." Dean urged him.

"They trust me to kill the devil and to save the world and that's exactly what I'm gonna do." Future Dean hissed.

"No. Not like this, you're not. I'm not gonna let you." Dean said, shaking his head stubbornly.

"Oh, really?" Future Dean said, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah." Dean nodded.

Future Dean suddenly slammed his gun over his head, causing him to fall down to the ground unconscious.

* * *

Dean suddenly jerked away to find himself lying on the ground. He heard gunfire and jumped up, running towards the building where he could see the flashes of light. Suddenly thunder crashed and lightning flashed around him as he ran around the corner. He immediately saw two figures lying on the ground in the path. One of them was wearing a black denim jacket and a black beanie. Her eyes were staring up at him lifelessly.

"No." he said, feeling a stab of pain rush through him at seeing Elena dead.

The other figure was lying on the ground with a white-shoe-wearing foot on his neck. Future Dean's eyes popped open and met his before an audible crack filled the air and his eyes were blank and lifeless as well.

The figure who killed Future Dean suddenly turned, his white suit impeccably clean. Dean stared at him with wide eyes as lightning flashed once again. It was Sam… but it wasn't.

"Oh. Hello, Dean." Lucifer said, grinning at him.

* * *

Elena suddenly jerked awake, feeling another presence in the room. She turned over to see that Dean wasn't there.

"Hello, Elena." A too-familiar voice said, walking forward.

Elena looked at the figure who walked out of the shadows with shock. She was wearing a leather jacket and a beanie. Her hair was braided over her shoulder just like Elena always did it.

"Katherine?" she demanded.

"No dice. Sorry. I'm you. From 2014." She said, walking forward to sit on the bed. "And you and I need to talk."

* * *

"Aren't you a surprise." Lucifer said, smirking at him. "You've come a long way to see this, haven't you?"

"Well, go ahead. Kill me." Dean said, his eyes welling up with tears at seeing his brother possessed by the devil.

"Kill you?" he turned to look at the corpse of Future Dean.

"Don't you think that would be a little... redundant?" he asked.

Dean looked down at his future self before looking back up at Lucifer.

"I'm sorry. It must be painful, speaking to me in this… shape. But it had to be your brother. It had to be." Lucifer said, reaching out to touch his shoulder.

Dean jerked backwards.

"You don't have to be afraid of me, Dean. What do you think I'm going to do?" he asked.

"I don't know. Maybe deep-fry the planet?" Lucifer looked over at a rosebush that was beside him.

"Why? Why would I want to destroy this stunning thing? Beautiful in a trillion different ways. The last perfect handiwork of God." He said, gesturing around.

Dean stared at him, not answering.

"You ever hear the story of how I fell from grace?" he asked.

"Oh, good God, you're not gonna tell me a bedtime story, are you? My stomach's almost out of bile." Dean snapped, glaring at him.

Lucifer stared at him.

* * *

"What do you mean, you're from 2014?" Elena demanded, scrambling away from her.

"There's not time for that, Elena. I just need to warn you about a few things. I know that you already know them but I'm gonna warn you anyway because… well… I already lived it." Future Elena explained.

Elena stared at her warily but was a little bit willing to believe her.

"You are, under no circumstances, going to give into Zachariah or any other angel who tries to convince you to make Dean say yes. I know that you weren't going to do it but it bears repeating. It is of the upmost importance that he never ever says yes. Also, you need to stop being so hard on Gabriel. He will be there for you when no one else is. Him and Cas. They are two of the most important people in your life so you need to let them in. I don't care if you get angry at them. They are going to be more important than you'll ever know." Future Elena said.

"Why are you telling me all of this?" Elena asked hesitantly.

"Because I'm not gonna let you make the same mistakes as me. I pushed Gabriel away and I am suffering for it. You need him." Future Elena said with narrowed eyes.

She suddenly sighed and shook her head.

"I have to get back." she said, looking up at Elena.

"Get back where?" Elena asked.

"To take care of my boys, like you have to take care of them in this time." Future Elena said.

"How are you gonna get back? There are no angels here." Elena informed her.

Her future self simply winked before disappearing.

* * *

"You know why God cast me down? Because I loved him. More than anything. And then God created..." Lucifer paused, smirking at Dean. "You. The little...hairless apes. And then he asked all of us to bow down before you—to love you, more than him. And I said, "Father, I can't." I said, 'These human beings are flawed, murderous'. And for that, God had Michael cast me into hell. Now, tell me, does the punishment fit the crime? Especially, when I was right? Look at what six billion of you have done to this thing, and how many of you blame me for it."

Dean hated that he sounded like he was making sense.

"You're not fooling me, you know that? With this sympathy-for-the-devil crap. I know what you are." He snapped, refusing to feel sorry for this thing.

"What am I?" Lucifer asked with that same smirk.

"You're the same thing, only bigger. The same brand of cockroach I've been squashing my whole life. An ugly, evil, belly-to-the-ground, supernatural piece of crap. The only difference between them and you is the size of your ego." He growled.

Lucifer smiled, even chuckling a little bit.

"I like you, Dean. I get what the other angels see in you. Goodbye. We'll meet again soon." He said, turning to walk away.

"You better kill me now!" Dean shouted.

He turned back to look at him.

"Pardon?" Lucifer asked, raising his eyebrows.

"You better kill me now. Or I swear, I will find a way to kill you. And I won't stop." Dean growled.

"I know you won't. I know you won't say yes to Michael, either. And I know you won't kill Sam. Whatever you do, you will always end up here. Whatever choices you make, whatever details you alter, we will always end up… here. I win. So, I win." Lucifer said.

"You're wrong." A new voice said, starting forward.

They turned to see a female walking up to them. Dean looked at her and back down at the figure he thought was Elena lyign on the ground. Her eyes suddenly weren't so lifeless and she smirked up at him. It was Katherine, not Elena. They tricked Lucifer. They tricked the devil. He turned to see future Cas walking behind Elena with blood staining his clothing but other than that he looked healthy.

Lucifer squinted at her.

"How is this…" he said.

"Meet my ancestor, Katerina Petrova." Elena interrupted him, gesturing to Katherine, who was standing up.

Dean watched as she walked around Lucifer and kneeled at future Dean's side. She looked down at him and smiled sadly.

"I wish you would stop dying." She murmured before placing her hand on his chest.

He suddenly inhaled deeply and stared up at her as Dean gawked at them both.

"It worked?" he asked.

"Well… it's not over yet." She said, helping him stand up as Lucifer stared at all of them with a shocked expression.

"Oh don't fret, Lucy." Elena said, walking forward. "We have big plans for you."

An angel-killing blade slid out of her sleeve and she stabbed it into his stomach, making him yell loudly as his body flashed. But it didn't kill him. It wasn't meant to, Dean knew that much. She pulled it out and stabbed it into the other side of his stomach.

"You're gonna give us Sam back, and then you're gonna go directly to hell." She whispered in his ear before she touched his forehead and he disappeared from the spot.

"And now he's in his very own holy oil fire circle." She said, tossing the angel-blade to Cas before smiling at the rest of them.

Dean watched them all with wide eyes.

"Sorry we didn't let you in on the plan, past me. But… well you would have ruined it." Future Dean shrugged.

Elena strode forward and looked up at him.

"This was never about killing Lucifer." He acknowledged.

"Of course not. We're family. And family doesn't leave anyone behind." She said with a smile.

"What is up with your new abilities?" he asked.

"You'll figure that out soon enough." Future Elena said, smiling up at him before she turned back to see everyone waiting on them.

"Time for you to go back, Dean. I'm waiting on you." she said, reaching forward to touch his forehead.

* * *

His eyes popped open to see that he was standing back in the motel room in, what was hopefully, 2009. Elena was sitting on the bed and she looked up at him when he appeared. Her face filled with relief and she launched off of the bed at him, wrapping her arms around his torso.

"You're safe." She sighed.

"Yeah, I am." He said, wrapping her up in his arms and thanking whoever was listening that he was back in his own time with his own Elena.

When he looked past her, he saw an unwelcome visitor standing there.

"Oh, well, if it isn't the ghost of Christmas screw you." he snapped, glaring at him as Elena turned to look at who it was.

"Enough. Dean, enough. You saw it, right? You saw what happens. You're the only person who can prove the devil wrong. Just say yes." Zachariah said, striding forward.

"How do I know that this whole thing isn't one of your tricks? Huh? Some angel hocus-pocus?" Dean demanded.

"The time for tricks is over. Give yourself to Michael. Say yes and we can strike. Before Lucifer gets to Sam. Before billions die." Zachariah shrugged.

Dean considered this, looking down at Elena who was looking up at him with wide eyes.

"Nah." He said, stroking her cheek.

Her face broke out into a relieved grin.

"Nah'? You telling me you haven't learned your lesson?" the angel demanded.

"Oh, I've learned a lesson, all right. Just not the one you wanted to teach." Dean said, turning to face him.

"Well, I'll just have to teach it again! Because I got you now, boy, and I'm never letting you…"

Dean and Elena suddenly disappeared from his sight.

"Son of a..." he said, looking around to see that their belongings were gone as well.

When he looked out the window, the Impala was no longer parked on the street.

"Just my luck." He muttered before disappearing.

Elena and Dean turned around as they stood in the parking lot to see Castiel standing by the Impala.

"That's pretty nice timing, Cas." Dean sighed, sounding relieved.

"We had an appointment." Cas said with a slight smile.

Dean reached out and put a hand on his shoudler.

"Don't ever change." He urged him.

Cas nodded as Elena reached out to hold Dean's hand.

"How did Zachariah find you?" Cas asked.

"Long story. Let's just stay away from Jehovah's Witnesses from now on, okay?" Dean said as he pulled out his phone.

"What are you doing?" Elena asked, looking at him with confusion and hope.

"Something I should have done in the first place." he said, looking at her and nodding before scrolling through his contacts to find the name.

* * *

Elena stood next to Dean with his arm around her as they waited in a field just underneath the bridge where they agreed to meet. She looked around him as they heard a car pulling up. When it came to a stop, Sam climbed out and Elena looked up at Dean before nodding at him to approach his brother.

"Sam." he nodded before pulling out Ruby's knife.

Sam stared at it nervously before looking up at Dean, who handed it to him, handle first.

"If you're serious and you want back in...you should hang on to this. I'm sure you're rusty." He said, nodding at him.

Sam took the knife slowly, unable to meet Dean's eyes.

"Look, man, I'm sorry. I don't know. I'm... whatever I need to be. But I was, uh… wrong." He stammered, looking at the ground. "What made you change your mind?"

"Long story. The point is...maybe we are each other's Achilles heel." Sam finally looked up at him with a sad expression.

"Maybe they'll find a way to use us against each other, I don't know. I just know we're all we've got. More than that. We keep each other human." Dean said.

"Thank you. Really. Thank you. I won't let you down." Sam said desperately.

"Oh, I know it. I mean, you are the second-best hunter on the planet." Dean said with a smirk.

"Hey!" Elena protested as she walked up, deeming it safe to do so.

Sam looked at her and she smiled at him, launching forward to hug him tightly.

"I'm glad to see you." she murmured.

He hugged her back just as tightly, feeling ten times better because of her. She pulled away and took Dean's hand before taking Sam's as well.

"So, what do we do now?" Sam asked, looking between them.

Elena and Dean exchanged a look, both remember what their future selves told them.

"We make our own future." They said at the same time.

"Guess we have no choice." Sam said, nodding as they turned to walk to the Impala.

Elena spoke up, suggesting that they go find the nearest diner and have a good burger. The brothers both agreed vehemently as she smiled at them.

* * *

**Author's Note: I hope you liked it! Review please! If I knew, I would tell you which case the next chapter is. However… I don't know so we're all gonna have to be surprised when it happens. This is probably where I'm going to start going out of order with the episodes just to help out my story. Elena's outfits are on profile. Review!**


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer: I do not own TVD or Supernatural**

**Thanks to Dark Alana, Hollywood17, DrawingMyHeartOut, diehardromantic, Dark-Angel-Supernatural, slayerdiaries, Nyssandria, RHatch89, neontreeslover, xxPaige23xx, TheElegantFaerie, MaddAlice, chiwi, schoch26, LineChokor, and the guest for reviewing!**

**1. All right, so I've written a lot of dark and dreary stuff lately. Not quite dark so much as serious. I miss the fun chapters. So I am going to try to make this chapter as fun as possible. It'll still have serious parts because it's still the apocalypse but it'll have funny parts too. Just like in the beginning.**

**2. Elena's outfits are on my profile.**

* * *

"Shit! Shit shit shit! Shit!" she repeated as she pumped her legs as fast as she could.

The sirens were getting closer and she ducked into an alleyway. She heard the car screech to a stop and the men began pursuing her on foot. They were no match for her sprint as the police officers were middle aged men. But, as she ran out of the other end, another cop car screeched to a stop in front of her as she attempted to cross the street.

"Fuck!" she shouted, hesitating before attempting to dart around the car.

The officer scrambled out of the front seat and snagged her arm before she could get away. She struggled with him for a moment before he manged to turn her and press her against the car, yanking her arms behind her back.

"Olivia Fisher, if that's even your real name… you are under arrest. You have the right to remain silent…" the cop began to say as he clapped the cold handcuffs on her wrist.

Elena bit her lip and rolled her eyes as the police officer pulled her away from the car and shoved her non-too-gently into the backseat. She sighed as she leaned her head back, struggling with the bobby pin that was attached to her sleeve.

"Whenever you're ready, boys." She grumbled, wondering why the hell it was taking them so long.

* * *

**TWO DAYS EARLIER**

Elena was reading the file with wide eyes as they sped down the road towards the next case. It had been two weeks since they reunited with Sam. In her mind, she continued to count down. She had sixty-six days until Zachariah's offer ended. The words of her future self and the presence of Sam and Dean at her side were the only things that kept her going.

"So…" she let out a slight laugh, shaking her head.

"… what's with this job?" Sam finished for her.

"Yeah." She nodded, closing the file to look up at the boys at the front.

"Dude suffers a head-on collision in a parked car? I'd say that's worth checking out." Dean shrugged.

"Yeah, definitely, but… we got bigger problems, don't you think?" Sam asked, looking between them.

"I'm sure the apocalypse'll still be there when we get back." Elena shrugged.

She and Dean had agreed to do a different case so that they would stop going insane with their intent search for the Colt.

"Right, yeah, but I mean, if… if the Colt is really out there somewhere…"

"Hey, we've been looking for two weeks, we got bupkis." Dean cut him off.

"Okay. But Dean... I mean, if we're gonna… ice the Devil…" Even Sam sounded skeptical as he said it.

"This is what we're doing! Okay? End of discussion." Dean snapped and Elena sighed, looking out the window.

Sam looked away as well as Dean's hands tightened on the steering wheel.

"It's just that this is our first real case, back at it all together. You know, I, I think we oughta ease into it, put the training wheels back on." Dean suggested.

"So you think I need training wheels." Sam scoffed, looking over at him as Elena buried her face in her hands.

This was how it had been ever since they came back together. The brothers were constantly fighting no matter what Elena said to try to get them to shut up. It didn't help that they hadn't seen a hint of Castiel for the entire two weeks.

"No, we. We need training wheels, all three of us. As a team. Okay?" Dean corrected himself, frustrated by his brother.

"Okay." Sam agreed and Elena breathed a sigh of relief that they actually managed to agree on.

"Man, I really want this to be a fresh start, you know? For the both of us." Dean said, almost sounding pleading.

* * *

Elena bounded into the motel room before them, throwing her stuff on the bed before collapsing on it. Dean and Sam came in carrying the hanging bags for their suits and the weapons bags as well.

"So Sheriff's department first?" she asked.

"Yeah, I think that's our best bet. Get what information they have before we go to the scene of the crime." Dean shrugged, looking at Sam who was about to head into the bathroom to change.

"How about you two go be FBI agents and I don't." Elena suggested, smiling.

"You're gonna sit this one out?" Dean asked.

"Nope, I'm gonna go shopping and then you can pick me up before you go to the scene and we'll go from there." she said, grinning at him.

"Why?" he asked, confused.

Elena bit her lip. She couldn't straight up say that she was going to force them to get along whether they liked it or not. If they had her there, she knew that they would bounce ideas for the case off of her instead of talking to each other. This way, they were forced to work together and to be nice about it.

"Because I want new clothes and you and Sam can handle the FBI side of things just fine." She said, pulling him down onto the bed with her and wrapping her arms around his neck.

"You two also need some time alone." Elena informed him.

"I don't think that's true." Dean said, looking down at her as his hands ran through her hair.

"Well… I didn't ask. Trust me. I know what I'm talking about." She said, smiling at him.

He sighed and let his head fall onto her shoulder.

"Please come with us?" he mumbled into her jacket.

"No. But…" she lifted his head to look at her.

"… I will kiss you." she said with a grin before leaning up to press her lips to his.

He smiled against her lips and responded, wrapping one arm around her waist and the other tangled in her hair. Sam made a sound of disgust when he came out of the bathroom and they were still kissing. Dean pulled away from her to give his brother a look. Elena laughed as she pushed him off and adjusted her clothing and hair.

"I have my phone. Text me when you're heading over and I'll let you know where I am." She said, grabbing her purse and heading for the door.

Dean stared after her, confused.

* * *

"Agents Bonham and Copeland." Dean said as they flipped the badges open to show the Sheriff.

He reached out to shake his hand.

"Rick Carnegie. Good to know ya. So you're here on account of Cal Hawkins' death?" he asked, looking between them.

"That's right." Sam nodded, shoving his badge back into his pocket.

"Well, 'fraid you came a long way for nothing. We already booked the guy that did it." Rick nodded.

Sam and Dean turned to frown at each other, confused.

"I'm sorry… who do you think did it?" Dean asked.

* * *

Elena was browsing the intimate section at the department store when she rounded the corner and saw Gabriel leaning against a rack with different styles of lacy underwear on it.

"Buying something for your lover boy?" he asked as she jumped and put her hand over her racing heart.

"No, I'm just looking." She said defensively.

"Mh-mm. A likely story. I heard about Dean's trip to the future via Zachariah. How did he enjoy that?" Gabriel asked as he picked up a pair of particularly flimsy panties.

"That was two weeks ago. I've been calling you every day since." Elena said accusingly, ripping them out of his hands and throwing them on the table.

"I was just doing what you asked me to do. I was 'getting out'." he informed her.

Elena sighed and rubbed her forehead frustratingly.

"Wait a minute, how did you know I was here?" she asked, gesturing to her ribs.

"It's the same as with you and your charges. If I concentrate really hard, my insticts'll lead me right to you. It helps that I can sniff you out because of that little genetic code I insterted in you." he said.

"Sniff me out?" she said, sounding a little violated.

"I was wrong to yell at you. I can't… shouldn't… blame you for remaining loyal to your brothers. They're your family." She said, turning to walk into the dresses.

Gabriel followed her.

"No harm done, snookums. You didn't hurt my feelings." Gabriel said with a smirk.

She stared at him for a moment before shaking her head.

"I'm still not gonna convince Dean to say yes." She informed him.

"As is your right. But only as long as you're willing to face the consequences." The archangel said.

"Do you know what he'll do to me?" she asked.

"Zachariah is a lot of things, a dick being one of them, but he is not unimaginative. He learned it from me." Gabriel said with a wink.

She simply gave him a slightly distressed.

"He's not going to kill you. That'll be too easy… too final. Dean can mourn for you and get past it and still continue to say no to Michael. No he's gonna do something that's long and drawn out. Something that'll cause pain for you both." he explained.

"Will it hurt?" Elena asked.

"Most likely. But that doesn't mean it'll particularly be physically painful. Sometimes the deepest pain is the pain that happens in here." He said, touching his hand to her heart.

"He said something about us being separated." Elena said.

"Then that's probably what will happen. But it won't be enough to keep you away from each other. Zachariah's got a little sadism in him." Gabriel said.

"A little?" she asked doubtfully.

"Okay fine… a lot. He'll want to torture you even more than just separation. He'll want it to hurt." He explained, pulling out a dress and handing it to her, throwing it in the pile of clothes that were already in her hands.

"Gee… really feeling the love from you heavenly beings." She said, rolling her eyes as he threw two more into her arms.

She didn't even bother to protest. Would it stop him if she did? Probably not.

"Why did you choose to show up now?" she asked.

"Because I can see your deepest desires. And for once, they aren't Dean Winchesters di…"

"Okay!" she said, her eyes widening.

"You saw something while Dean was on his blast to the future. You saw you." he said, pointing at her.

"She… I… we could do things." Elena said.

"Yep." He agreed, pulling her in the direction of the cashier.

"I haven't tried these on." she argued.

"They'll fit." He assured her.

The cashier, a middle-aged woman, began ringing them up. Elena turned to dig through her purse to pull out one of the many fake credit cards they carried.

"Please, allow me." Gabriel said with a wink, a credit card appearing in his hand where there wasn't one before.

"Oh, how sweet. How long have you two been together?" the woman asked with a smile.

"Oh we're not…"

"It's been too long. I can't even remember. Right, doll face?" Gabriel sighed happily, throwing his arm over her shoulders.

Elena glared up at him before driving her elbow into his side.

"We're not together. He's more like an annoying older brother." she said, glaring at him as he withdrew his arm.

"Well… he seems plenty sweet to me." the woman said, smiling happily at him.

"Thank you, ma'am." Gabriel said, nodding at her before looking at Elena triumphantly.

He gathered her bags and they walked outside to a bench where they sat down.

"I want to learn how to do the things that my future self was doing." Elena announced, turning to him.

* * *

Sam and Dean were in the Sheriff's office watching a homemade video on the television. The scene on the video was obviously a garage.

"Cal? Is something wrong?" the man on the video asked.

Suddenly the video showed the victim, Cal's, head smashd against the window.

"Oh my God, Cal. Cal!" the man, Jim Grossman, shouted.

The television cut to static and Carnegie shook his head as he turned the television off. He turned to face Sam and Dean.

"Sicko taped his own handiwork." He said.

Sam and Dean exchanged confused looks.

"I don't follow." Sam said.

"It was Jim Grossman that killed Cal." The sheriff said.

"Wait, what?" Dean said, surprised by the accusation.

"Well, he was the only one on the scene for miles." Carnegie shrugged.

"They were best friends." Sam reminded him.

"Most violent crimes are committed by someone close to the victim."

Dean frowned at the man.

"And how exactly did Jim slam Cal into a windshield with all the force of an eighty-mile-per-hour crash?" he asked.

Carnegie blinked, looking stumped by the question as if he hadn't thought of it.

"Drugs, maybe?"

Dean raised his eyebrows at the clueless man.

"Look, you know this ain't brain surgery, boys! Whatever it looks like, that's what it usually is. It's simple." The sheriff said stubbornly.

"Simple. Right." Dean scoffed, looking over at Sam.

"Right. Um, if you don't mind, we'd like to speak to Jim Grossman anyway." Sam requested.

* * *

"I was in the house when it happened, I didn't even see it." Jim sighed as he sat at the table and Dean and Sam stood in front of him.

"For argument's sake, say we believe you." Dean said, crossing his arms.

"Why would you? The cops didn't." Jim said miserably.

"Well we're not your typical cops." Dean informed him, sitting down.

"Please, just tell us what you saw." Sam requested, sitting down as well.

"It's not what I saw, it's what I heard. Tires squealing, glass breaking." Jim said.

He sighed and shook his head.

"It was the car that did it." he informed them.

Dean and Sam both raised their eyebrows at the same time.

"The car?" Sam asked skeptically.

"I mean, I heard about the curse, but, I just thought it was a load of crap." Jim said, staring at them with wide eyes.

"Curse, what do you… what do you mean, curse?" Dean asked, skeptical as well.

"The car. Little Bastard." Jim said.

"Li… Little Bastard? As in **the** Little Bastard?" Dean stammered, shocked.

"Wait, wait, wait, wait, uh, what's Little Bastard?" Sam asked.

"It's James Dean's car. It's the one he was killed in." the older brother breathed, sounding almost reverent as he spoke of it.

"Yeah, that's the one. Cal had been looking for it for years. I mean, hell, we both had. But he found it first." Jim said.

Dean leaned close to Sam, trying to hide his excitement from Jim.

"Oh, we are definitely checking this out." he whispered.

* * *

"Do my ears deceive me? Isn't this the girl who, a year ago, wanted nothing more to be human? Who didn't even want the abilities that you have at first?" Gabriel asked teasingly.

Elena sighed, looking at her hands.

"Things change. People change. The things that I wanted then… a normal life with a normal family… they aren't that important anymore. Saving lives… protecting people… especially the ones that I care about. That's what is important." she said, nodding.

She heard a sniffle and looked over at Gabriel.

"My little girl… growing up… so proud." He said, wiping a fake tear from his eye.

Elena rolled her eyes and shook her head.

"I'm not gonna lie to you. It'll take practice. Lots and lots of practice. And that's just to get the apparating thing down." Elena grinned over at him.

"What?" he asked, confused at her sudden happiness.

"That's what I called it with Cas. Apparating. He had no idea what it was." she admitted.

"Great minds thing alike, sugar lips." he winked at her.

Elena shook her head, hating to admit that his constant flirting was actually endearing her to the archangel.

"Whatever, hot stuff." She said with a roll of her eyes.

He laughed and threw his arm around her shoulders. She didn't throw it off this time.

"If you keep on using your abilites that you have now, healing and all that super strength… it'll become easier to develop other ones. The next step is healing others." Gabriel said.

She turned to him with wide eyes.

"I've tried… I can't." Elena admitted.

"That's cause you haven't tried hard enough and you haven't had me to help you." he replied easily.

"You're gonna help me?" she asked.

"Of course… what kind of… for lack of a better term… guardian angel would I be if I didn't?" he said, looking over at her.

She stared back at him before smiling slightly.

"So tell me how you know Sam and Dean." She requested.

"Why are you so intent on finding that out?" Gabriel sighed.

"Because I'm a naturally curious person." She shrugged.

"Many of the people on this planet, supernatural and normal, do not know me as an angel. You are one of the few who knows that I am Gabriel. Others, including my brothers, think I'm dead. I am known by almost everyone as a Trickster." He explained.

"Like… in mythology?" Elena asked.

He nodded.

"Oh God… what did you do to Sam and Dean?" she asked, narrowing her eyes at him.

"I just enjoy messing with the boys. There's nothing wrong with that." he shrugged.

Elena stared at him.

"They tried to kill me first so it was only payback." He said defensively.

"And why did they try to kill you?" Elena demanded.

"I was playing a few tricks on a college campus. Making some urban legends come true. It was fun." He shrugged.

"Yeah, I'm sure." Elena said with a roll of her eyes, marveling over how different her life was now than a year ago.

Suddenly her phone rang with a text.

"They're on their way so I suppose it's time for you to poof away." She said, looking over at him.

"Yeah… I suppose. But I always like to leave things better… or funnier… than when I found them. So here." He snapped his fingers and she was in a new outfit.

"One of the outfits I picked out for you. Enjoy." He said with a smirk before disappearing.

Elena looked down, confused. She was wearing jeans but Gabriel hadn't picked out any jeans for her. She had a feeling that it was going to be a while before she could keep up with that angel.

* * *

Elena ran up to the Impala once it pulled up and threw the bags into the back before climbing into the backseat.

"What did you find out?" she asked.

"You changed clothes." Dean said, looking at her in the rearview mirror.

"I like them." She shrugged with a small smile.

"What?" Dean asked.

"Well… it turns out that Gabriel has good taste in clothing." she shrugged, not wanting to divulge the fact that the brothers had a relationship with her angel.

"He showed up?" Dean questioned, turning to look at her.

"Yeah. He, uh… he sniffed me out." she said, grimacing slightly.

"That's creepy." Both brothers said at once.

"Agreed. But kind of comforting too. It's hard to explain." She waved off at their confused looks.

"You see Cas too?" Dean asked and Elena could tell that he was worried about the fact that they hadn't seen the angel in a while as well.

"No, I didn't." Elena said softly, causing a silence to fall in the car.

"Hey, Dean. I thought you were excited about getting to the guy's house." Sam reminded his older brother.

"Uh, yeah… right." Dean said, turning to drive off.

* * *

"We basically found out that the guy was killed by a curse." Sam informed her as Dean walked around the car with awe, careful not to touch it.

Elena stared at the bloodstained windshield.

"So, what, this is, like, Christine?" she asked, standing as far away from the car as she could.

Dean shook his head, looking up at her with an exhilarated expression.

"Christine is fiction. This… this is real." He sighed, looking down at the car reverently.

"Okay." Sam said slowly.

"Enlighten me." Elena said to Dean.

"Well after James Dean died, his mechanic bought the wreckage, and he fixed it up. And it repaid him by... falling on him." he said, gesturing to the car. "And Tony McHenry was killed when it locked up on the racetrack. I mean, death follows this car around like exhaust. Nobody touches it and comes away in one piece."

"Uh huh." Elena said, staring at the car suspiciosly.

"Then, in 1970, it vanished off the back of a truck. Nobody's ever seen it since. I'm telling you if this… if this car is Little Bastard, I will bet you dollars to donuts it's what killed the guy." Dean said, smiling at them.

"So how do we find out?" Elena asked, unable to understand the excited glimmer in his eyes.

"Cal matched the VIN number, but the only real way to know is the engine number." Dean said.

Sam nodded as Elena stared between them, not really connecting the dots.

"I'm guessing the engine number…" Sam trailed off.

"On the engine. Yeah." Dean sighed and her eyes widened as she looked at the supposedly cursed car.

Sam and Dean pulled their jackets off and pushed their sleeves up as they stared at the car with trepidation. Dean hesitantly took a step towards it before stopping.

"You want me to do it?" Sam asked, looking at Dean with wide eyes.

" No. ...No, no, I've… I've got it." Dean stammered

"I'd like neither of you to do it." Elena pointed out.

It was useless and she knew it.

"If it's a haunted car… we need to make it stop being haunted." Sam reminded her.

"Doesn't mean I'm happy about it." she said, wincing as Dean took another step towards the car, his hands hovering over the hood.

"Okay, baby. I'm not gonna hurt you, so... don't hurt me." he said as he gestured for Sam to grab him a roller board that was next to the car.

Elena began biting her lip as Dean laid down on the board with a pencil in his mouth and a piece of paper in his hands. Her hands were shaking and she was certain that this would not go well and that Dean was going to be crushed by the car just like James Dean's mechanic was. Suddenly the car shuddered and Elena clapped her hand over her eyes, fighting the urge to yank Dean out from underneath it. She watched as Sam dropped onto the ground next to Dean and startled him.

"Need a flashlight?" he asked.

"No. Don't...do anything, just go away." Dean hissed and Elena removed her hand and resumed biting her lip as she began pacing.

You… uh, okay?" Sam asked, detecting the fear in his older brother's voice.

"Don't speak. All right? In fact, don't even look at her, she might not like it." Dean instructed him before Sam stood once again.

They heard Dean rubbing the pencil on the paper and the car shuddered once again. Finally he rolled back out from underneath it and they all let out a breath of relief. Dean shuddered as he stood, composing himself before he handed Sam the piece of paper.

"Find out who owned it. Not just the last owner, you gotta take it all the way back to 1955." He said, his voice still shaky.

"That's a lot of research." Sam informed him, staring at him.

"Well, I guess I just made your afternoon." Dean shot back before walking off.

Elena sighed as they went into another one of their annoying staredowns.

* * *

"Where's Dean?" Sam asked as he looked over at Elena who was making calls as he found numbers for different mechanics and used car dealerships.

"He went out to get some beer." Elena said simply, crossing another number off the list as they'd figured out what the deal was with the car.

"Wasn't that… an hour ago?" Sam asked.

She looked over at the clock, confused. She'd refused to go with him, wanting to spend some time with Sam. That might have been a mistake. Sam pulled out his phone to call him.

"Yo." Dean answered.

"Hey. Took us a while, but we traced all the car's previous owners." Sam said.

"Any of 'em die bloody?" Dean asked.

"Nope. In fact…"

Sam cut off when they heard the distinct noise of pool balls colliding.

"Dean, are you in a bar?" Elena demanded as Sam put it on speakerphone.

"No, I… I'm… I'm in a restaurant." Dean stammered and they exchanged an annoyed look.

"Here's your beer." A male voice said and Elena rolled her eyes.

"Thanks." Dean said, sounding busted.

"That happens to have a bar." He corrected himself.

"We've been working our asses off here." Sam said.

"Hey, world's smallest violin, pal, I spent the afternoon up Christine's skirt. I needed a drink." Dean shot back.

"Actually, you didn't." Elena announced.

"Meaning?" Dean questioned.

"The car's first owner was a cardiologist in Philadelphia; drove it 'til he died in 1972." Sam answered.

"So you're saying…" Dean urged someone to tell him what was happening.

"That Porsche is not, nor has it ever been, James Dean's car. It's a fake Little Bastard." Sam informed him.

"Well then what was it that killed the guy?" Dean asked.

"Good question." Sam and Elena said at the same time.

* * *

Elena walked behind Sam and Dean up to the house where the most recent accident happened. When they got to the **Do Not Cross** line, Dean turned to smirk at her.

"What?" she demanded.

"You can't cross." He said, sounding amused.

"Why not?" she asked, looking between them.

"Because you decided to go clothes shopping instead of playing FBI." Sam reminded her.

Both of the brothers smirked at her before ducking under the tape.

"Oh screw you both." she snapped, crossing her arms over her chest.

A man walked up to the line.

"All right everyone, we're gonna have to ask you to leave. This is a closed scene and we don't want a crowd here." The police officer said, urging them backwards.

Elena knew that was cop speak for, 'we're about to bring out a body bag and we don't want you to see it because we don't want to set the town into an uproar'. So when everyone else dwindled off, she remained exactly where she was standing.

"What are you doing? I told you to go." the cop said, staring at her.

"I'm waiting for my colleagues. I'm their assistant." She said, pointing at Sam and Dean.

"Yeah, right. Those guys were at the precinct today and they didn't mention anything about having an assistant so I'm afraid that you're gonna have to disperse before I arrest you for disrupting an officer in the performance of his duties." He said, glaring at her.

Elena huffed before turning to walk to the sidewalk.

"You gonna arrest me for standing on a public sidewalk?" she shot back.

He shot her one more glare before turning to walk off.

* * *

"I want you to use a, a fine-tooth comb. The evidence is here, we just gotta find it." Carnegie said as he stood just outside of the door to the house.

"Heard you got another weird one." Dean said, walking up to him.

"Uh, well, it's a… it's a little strange on the surface, I admit, but, uh...you know, once you… you look at the facts..." he stammered.

"William Hill died from a gunshot wound to the head. No gun, no gunpowder, no bullet." Sam pointed out.

Dean shrugged, looking from Sam to the Sheriff.

"Nope. Nothing strange about that." he said sarcastically.

"Well there's gotta be a reasonable explanation. There always is." Carnegie argued.

"Well what's your reasonable explanation?" Dean scoffed.

The man looked around cautiously before leaning in as if he was going to tell an important secret.

"Professional killer." He whispered.

"Come again?" Sam asked, raising an eyebrow at the strange man.

"Well, CIA, NSA, one o' them trained assassins, like in Michael Clayton." He said.

Dean and Sam gaped at the man, unable to believe how ignorant he was.

"Right." Dean said slowly, turning to look at Sam.

"You're welcome to look around, but… but these guys don't leave fingerprints." Carnegie assured them.

"Mind if we talk with the witness?" Sam asked.

"Be my guest. She's not making any sense! And she's not making any sense in Spanish either." Carnegie said, pointing to a bench at the sidewalk close to where Elena was standing, looking frustrated.

"Right." Dean repeated, nodding as they walked away from the man.

* * *

"No puedo vivir aquí. Necesito mi familia. Me voy ahora. Me voy a la casa. No… me voy a la casa en El Salvador ahora." The woman, William Hill's housekeeper, whimpered to a police officer as they approached.

"Consuela Alvarez?" Dean questioned.

"Yes?" the woman asked, looking up at them.

"FBI." Sam said as they showed their badges.

The police officer stood and walked off.

"Now, uh, you said you saw something in the professor's house. Right? Something in the window?" Dean asked.

"Estaba sacando la basura. Imiré por la ventana y vi al hombre que mató al Señor Hill!" she began to rant.

Sam and Dean exchanged panicked looks before kneeling before her.

"Uh, Señora Alvarez. Cálmese, por favor. Uh…"

He looked up at Dean, thinking as hard as he could.

"Uh, díganos lo que vio?" he asked, uncertain.

Dean grinned and nodded.

"Nice." He encouraged his little brother.

"Freshman Spanish." Sam said with his own smile.

"Era alto. Muy alto. Y llevaba el abrigo negro largo y tenía bigotes." Consuela informed them as Elena walked up to stand next to Dean.

Sam and Dean exchanged wide eyed looks.

"Alto? Singing? A singing man?" Dean asked.

"Negro is black." Sam shrugged as Elena rolled her eyes.

"Bigotes sounds a little dirty. Largo bigotes." Dean said, laughing at himself.

"A tall man, very tall. With a long black coat and a…" Elena said as she squinted at the woman.

"A beard?" she asked the hysterical woman.

Consuela nodded, her eyes still wide.

"Y un sombrero." She informed them.

"Dude was wearing a sombrero?" Dean asked, smirking at the idea and Elena knew that he was picturing the big Mexican hat.

"A hat?" Elena said, gesturing to Sam's head as he was still kneeling in front of her.

"No, no, no, un sombrero alto." She said and Elena moved her hand up higher.

"Singing again?" Dean asked.

"A tall hat?" she asked.

"Oh, like a top hat." Dean guessed.

"Un sombrero alto." Consuela stressed.

"Was the hat singing?"

"No one was singing!" Elena hissed to Dean before gesturing higher.

"A stovepipe hat?" she asked.

"Sí." Consuela nodded.

"Oh yeah, like Abraham Lincoln." Dean said with a smirk.

Sam shrugged as Consuela began sobbing again.

"Sí. El Presidente Lincoln."

They exchanged confused looks, no one having any problem translating that.

"Abraham Lincoln kill Mister Hill!" the hysterical woman cried.

"Huh?" Dean said, stumped.

"S-so I go home now?" Consuela asked, looking up at them tearfully.

"Uh, sí. Gracias." Sam nodded.

"Gracias." Dean pronounced totally wrong.

Sam turned and frowned at them as Consuela walked off.

* * *

Dean and Elena were sitting on one side of the table in the motel room and Sam was sitting on the other researching. Her and Dean were looking at the video from the fake Little Bastard case.

"Hold on." Elena said as she saw something.

"I saw it too." Dean said, pausing it and backing it up a few frames.

"Whoa." He said as a figure in a red jacket appeared, reflected in the chrome of a car wheel.

"What?" Sam asked.

Dean went back and forth between adjacent frames and they figured out that the image was only present in one frame but not the other.

"It's a freeze-frame from Jim Grossman's video." Dean said as he turned the laptop around for Sam to see.

Sam squinted at it.

"Am I crazy, or does that look like James Dean?" Dean questioned.

"That looks like James Dean." Sam and Elena said at the same time.

"So we got Abraham Lincoln, and James Dean?" Elena asked as Dean turned the laptop back around and closed it.

Sam frowned as Dean's brow furrowed.

"Famous ghosts?" Dean asked.

"Maybe." Sam said.

"Well that's just silly." Dean said.

"No, actually, uh, there is a ton of lore on famous ghosts. More than the, you know, not-famous kinds. I'm actually surprised we haven't run into one before." Sam suggested.

"Yeah, but now we got two of 'em? Two extremely pissed off ghosts?" Elena asked.

"Who are apparently ganking their fans." Sam offered.

"What do you mean?" Dean asked.

Sam turned to his computer and read off of it.

"Professor Hill was a Civil War nut. He dug Lincoln." He explained.

"And Cal must've been a James Dean freak. He spent seventeen years of his life tracking down the guy's car." Dean nodded.

"So you're saying we've got two super-famous, super-pissed-off ghosts killing their... super-fans?" Elena asked as Sam raised his eyebrows and shrugged.

"That's what it looks like." he said.

"Well, that is muchos loco." Dean said, nodding.

Sam and Elena exchanged a grin.

"Muy." They said at the same time and Dean looked up to glance between them.

"Not muchos." Elena explained.

"Muy loco." Sam nodded.

"Yeah, well, the big question is, what the hell are they doing here?" Dean said, disgruntled at their correction of his Spanish.

"Yeah. Ghosts usually haunt the places they live. I mean, I, I get Abraham Lincoln at the White House…"

"And James Dean at a race track, but... what the hell are they doing in Canton?" Dean asked.

Elena pulled Dean's computer over to him as Dean stood and walked to the fridge to get a can of soda. Thirty minutes after starting more research, she came across something.

"You gotta be kidding me." she said.

"What?" Dean asked as both him and Sam walked over to read the screen.

"You gotta be kidding me." they said at the same time.

* * *

Elena looked around with an interested look as they stood in the main room of the wax museum. Dean and Sam were wandering around checking out the statues of JFK, Nixon, and, unsurprisingly, Lincoln. She held a notepad in her hand as they waited on the owner of the museum. She looked over in time to see Dean frown at the statue of Gandhi.

"Dude, he's short." He snorted, looking over at Sam, who rolled his eyes.

"Hey. Gandhi was a great man." Sam shot back.

"Yeah, for a Smurf." Dean scoffed, interrupted by the owner coming down the stairs at a half jog.

He was slightly out of breath and wearing a somewhat familiar leather jacket.

"Sorry to keep you waiting, this is our busiest time of the year." He said, smiling at them.

Elena saw Dean look around out of the corner of her eye and knew that he was about to say something asshole-like.

"This is busy?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Well, not right now, but it's early." The owner said, shrugging.

"It's four-thirty." Dean said skeptically.

"So, what can I do for you?" he said, glaring at Dena.

"Well, I am writing a piece for Travel Magazine. I'm Olivia Fisher and these are my collegues, John Bonham and Stewart Copeland, my photographer and my researcher." Elena said with an easy smile, glad to be playing the part of journalist.

The owner looked at her with surprise before his eyes drifted down to her bare legs and back up to her face.

"Yeah, our piece is on how, uh, totally non-sucky wax museums are." Dean snapped, glaring at the man.

"That's fantastic. A little press, just what we need." The man said with a wide smile.

"Great. Well we're interested in a few of your exhibits, specifically Abraham Lincoln and James Dean." Elena said, looking over at the statue of Lincoln.

"Two of our most popular displays." The owner informed her proudly.

"Oh yeah? So they bring in a lot of visitors?" Sam asked, stepping forward.

"Yeah, we have our regulars." The man nodded.

"I don't suppose that, uh, William Hill and Cal Hawkins were regulars, were they?" Dean asked, trying to be subtle.

"As a matter of fact, they were." He nodded. "Yeah, I heard what happened to them. It's tragic, just tragic. Oh… you… that's not gonna be in the article, is it?" he asked, panicking.

"Of course not." Elena said, smiling at him.

"You know, I gotta tell you, that… that Lincoln is so lifelike, I mean, you… I mean, you can just imagine him moving around. You ever see anything like that?" Dean asked, causing the owner to frown at him.

"Uh... no." the owner said, staring at him as if he was crazy.

"No?" Dean asked hopefully.

"Is there anything you could think of that would make your museum... unusual? You know, for the article?" Elena asked, looking at him with an interested face.

"Well, I'll say. There isn't another place like us, not anywhere." He said with a grin once again.

"How so?" Dean questioned.

"Well, for one, that's Honest Abe's real hat." He said, pointing to Lincoln.

"It is?" Sam asked.

"Almost like his remains." Dean said, looking pointedly at Sam and Elena.

"Uh...I guess?" the owner said, freaked out again by Dean's strange behavior.

"You wouldn't happen to have any of James Dean's personal effects, would you?" Sam asked.

"Ooh, yeah. Got his keychain. We got a bunch of stuff, uh, Gandhi's bifocals, FDR's iron lung. This." he said, gesturing to the jacket.

"And who did that belong to?" Elena asked, frowning at the jacket.

"The Fonz. Seasons two through four!" he said, doing double thumbs up as he grinned widely.

"W-wow. Yeah, that's…that's really cool... ish." She said, unsure of how else to react to that.

"This? This is nothing. I've been working on a new collection of figures. Stuff that'll really wow the kids." He said, sounding thrilled.

"The kids?" Dean asked.

"Yeah, Gen Y." he shrugged.

Dean nodded as if he knew what the man was talking about.

"Computer games, cell phones, sexting." Elena let out a cough at that and had to cover her mouth as Sam thumped her back.

"I actually do quite a little bit of that last one with my lady friend." The owner said with a wink.

"That's not going to be in the article!" Elena said loudly, slamming her notebook shut with a traumatized expression.

Dean raised his eyebrows as the owner scoffed and shook his head.

"They're just fads. I'm gonna make wax museums hip again." He said, looking back up at them.

He grinned and did the double thumbs once again. Dean chuckled and shook his head as Sam returned an uneasy thumbs up and they turned to leave.

* * *

"I'm gonna go get weapons out of the Impala." Sam announced as he stood to walk to the door.

"I'll go with you." Elena said, scrambling off of the bed where she was lying with Dean watching television.

They looked at her questioningly.

"I left my phone in the car." She shrugged.

"All right." Sam said, opening the door and allowing her to walk through first.

When they got to the Impala, she leaned against the door as he opened the trunk.

"Aren't you gonna get your phone?" he asked.

"I lied. I wanted to talk to you." she said, smiling at him.

"Why?" he asked warily.

"How are you doing, Sam?" she asked, suddenly serious.

He looked up at her as he loaded guns into a bag.

"I'm fine." He said.

"Really? Or you're fine in the way that you don't want to talk about it?" Elena questioned.

"I mean… I'm… I just…" he sighed, shaking his head as he shut the trunk and put his hands on it, leaning forward.

"Go on." Elena said, wanting to get him to talk.

That's where they went wrong last time. They stopped talking, all three of them. If she could get Sam to talking again, get him to admit what he was thinking, then there would be no more surprises. He would be okay with coming to them and telling them what was going on.

"I wish that Dean would stop treating me like an invalid." He admitted, peeking up at her.

"He's just worried about you, Sam." she assured him.

Sam scoffed and shook his head.

"He's going about showing it the wrong way, but it's what is happening. He's so afraid that you'll slip back into old ways, that you'll start drinking demon blood again. It terrifies him even though he won't admit it. He doesn't want to see you hurting yourself again." Elena explained.

"Well why doesn't he just say that instead of constantly insinuating how much he can't trust me?" Sam demanded frustratingly.

"You know your brother, Sam. He doesn't do that touchy-feely crap. Most of the time you have to guess what Dean is feeling." Elena said.

He sighed and ran his hands through his hair.

"I just wish I could go back, you know?" he said.

"But you can't and that's a good thing. You can learn from your mistakes, Sam. You can make better decisions in the future. That's why we make mistakes." She assured him.

"This is getting a little soap opera like." he admitted after a few moments of silence.

"Yeah, it is." She agreed, smiling at him before looping her arm through his to walk back to the motel room.

When they opened the door, they heard Dean talking as he sat on the bed. He didn't notice them come in.

"Yeah, Abraham Lincoln and James Dean, can you believe that? ... Why so kill-crazy? Ah, maybe the apocalypse has got 'em all hot and bothered. Yeah, well, we all know whose fault that is. ... Well I'm sorry, but it's true." Elena gaped at his back at his careless tone.

Sam scowled in his direction and slammed the door shut, causing Dean to spin around and take in their expressions.

"I'll call you later. Bye." Dean said before hanging up the phone.

"What's going on?" Sam asked as Elena remained rooted right where she was.

"Did you get the trunk packed up?" Dean asked.

"Yeah, trunk's packed. Who was on the phone?" Sam nodded.

"Bobby." Dean shrugged, standing up to pull his jacket on.

"And?" Sam asked.

Dean shook his head. "Nothing." He shrugged.

"So we're just gonna pretend I didn't hear what I just heard?" Sam demanded, suddenly angry.

"Pretend or don't pretend. Whatever floats your boat." Dean said, pushing past him to walk to the door.

"This was supposed to be a fresh start, Dean." Sam snapped, whirling around.

"Well, this is about as fresh as it gets." Dean said as he turned to look back at his brother.

"Dean." Elena said, looking up at him with a furrowed brow.

"Are we going or not?" Dean said, cutting off the conversation before he turned to walk out.

Elena exchanged a sympathetic look with Sam before they turned to follow him to the car.

* * *

Elena leaned against the desk watching as Sam and Dean walked around fetching the things they needed. Sam set a metal trashcan in the center of the floor as Dean pulled off Lincoln's hat.

"Check it out." Dean said and they turned to see him wearing the hat.

"Four score and seven years ago, I had a funny hat." He said in a low voice, mimicking Lincoln.

"Dean." Elena sighed, shaking her head.

Sam held his hand out for the hat and Dean pulled it off, shoving it into his hands with a slight pout.

"We can't have any fun with this?" he asked, looking between them.

"Let's just torch the objects, torch the ghosts, get outta here. Okay?" Sam snapped, still upset by what he heard in the motel room.

"I'll go grab East of Eden's keychain." Dean said, turning to walk out.

"I'll go with you." Elena said, hopping off the table to follow him.

Dean sighed as they walked out of the room.

"Nothing to say, huh?"

"What do you want me to say?" he replied, his mood sour again.

She grabbed his jacket and whirled him around.

"I want you to start taking it easy on your brother." she said.

Dean sighed and turned his head away from her. Elena glared up at him and turned it right back so that he would look her in the eyes.

"Hey! I mean it! Nothing is going to get better until you stop reminding him of the mistakes he made." She said seriously.

"What if it can't get better, huh?" he shot back, sounding truly afraid that it would never be okay between him and his brother.

"It sure as hell isn't gonna get any better until you try. You, Dean. You are what is holding the two of you back from forgiveness, not Sam. He's willing to try anything but you aren't giving him a chance. You have to give him a damn chance." She said, her voice pleading towards the end of her rant.

He sighed and opened his mouth to say something but they suddenly heard the slamming of doors and a crash.

"Sam?" Elena called as they turned to walk to the room.

The doors were shut and Dean leaned forward, trying to rattle them open as they heard more crashes.

"Dean! Elena!" They heard Sam shout for help.

Elena didn't have to think much once she heard the distress in his voice. She concentrated on the doors for half a second and they slammed open. They ran inside without a second thought and saw Sam wrestling with Gandhi.

"Dean!" Sam called for help as the figure jumped on his back.

"Is that Gandhi?" Dean asked.

"Yeah!" Sam wheezed.

"Dude, he's squirrelly." Dean remarked as Elena looked around for the shotgun.

"Get the…" Gandhi elbowed Sam in the chest before he could say anymore and winded him.

Sam pointed at Gandhi's wax figure and Dean ran over to it.

"Do it!" Sam choked out.

"Get the what?" Dean asked.

"Glasses!" Elena exclaimed, running over to grab them and she threw them into the trash can as Dean squirted lighter fluid into it.

He finally lit them on fire with a match and Gandhi almost immediately disappeared as Sam fell to the ground gasping for air.

"You couldn't have been a fan of someone cool?" Dean asked.

Elena and Sam turned to stare at him.

"Really? Gandhi?" he scoffed, shaking his head as he walked out to find James Dean's keys.

* * *

"Ready to blow this joint?" Dean asked as they packed up.

Sam walked out of the bathroom zipping up his toiletries bag but looking troubled

"Didn't it strike you as strange the way Gandhi just... vanished?" he asked.

"Strange how?" Elena asked, looking up at him.

"No screaming, no big flame-out, I mean, that isn't the way ghosts usually go." Sam shrugged.

"Still, I torched, he vanished." Dean said.

"Yeah, but I…" Sam sighed, cutting himself off. "… also, I feel like he was... trying to take a bite out of me." he admitted.

"A bite?" Elena questioned.

"Yeah, like he was hungry. But the thing is, Gandhi… or, the real Gandhi… he was a…" Sam cut off, unwilling to admit to this.

"A what?" Dean urged him.

Sam continued to hesitate.

"Spit it out." Dean sighed, annoyed.

"He was a fruitarian." Sam gave in.

Dean and Elena stared at Sam for a moment before Dean laughed.

"Let me get this straight. Your, uh, ultimate hero was not only a short man in diapers, but he was also a fruitarian?" Dean said, shaking his head.

"That's not the point." Sam argued.

"That is good. That is… even for you, that is good." Dean chuckled.

"Look, I'm just saying, I'm not so sure this thing is over." Sam insisted.

Dean sighed, spreading his arms out.

"It was a ghost. It was a weirdly super-charged fruitarian ghost, but it was still a ghost. Now let's go." he said, picking up his stuff and gesturing for them to follow him.

Elena, however, wasn't certain that Sam was wrong.

"So first you drag me into town, and now you're dragging me back out." Sam demanded.

"You ain't steering this boat. Let's go, chop chop." Dean said, walking towards the door.

"You know, this isn't gonna work." Sam snapped, finally having enough.

Dean stopped and turned as Elena rubbed her forehead, ready for them to fight once again.

"What isn't?" Dean asked.

"Us. You, me, together, I… I thought it could, but it can't." Sam said, shaking his head.

"You're the one that wanted back in, chief." Dean informed him.

"And you're the one who called me back in." Sam shot back.

"Guys stop…" Elena began.

"I still think we got some trust building to do." Dean interrupted her and she shook her head.

Clearly what she said the night before had no effect.

"How long am I gonna be on double-secret probation?" Sam demanded.

"Till I say so." Dean shrugged.

"Look. I know what I did. What I've done. And I am trying to climb out of that hole, I am, but you're not making it any easier." Sam said, proving Elena's point for her.

"So what am I supposed to do, just let you off the hook?" Dean asked, glancing over at Elena as if he was asking her too.

"No. You can think whatever you want. I deserve it, and worse. Hell, you'll never punish me as much as I'm punishing myself, but the point is, if we're gonna be a team, you and I… it has to be a two-way street." Sam said desperately.

"So we just go back to the way we were before?" Dean scoffed.

"No, because we were never that way before. Before didn't work." Sam said and Elena looked at him with surprise as Dean frowned.

"How do you think we got here?" Sam sighed.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Dean fired back.

"Dean, one of the reasons I went off with Ruby...was to get away from you." Sam said, sounding apologetic for saying it.

"What?" Dean said, shocked.

"It made me feel strong. Like I wasn't your kid brother." Sam shrugged.

"Are you saying this is my fault?" the older brother demanded.

"No, it's my fault. All I'm saying is that, if we're gonna do this, we have to do it different, we can't just fall into the same rut." Sam said pleadingly.

"What do you want me to do?" Dean asked, shaking his head.

"You're gonna have to let me grow up, for starters." Sam requested.

Dean's phone interrupted their conversation and he set his bag down to answer it, staring at Sam.

"Yeah?" he said.

He looked over at Elena and then back at Sam.

"Yeah. Yeah, okay." He nodded before hanging up.

"I guess you were right about this not being over." He said, walking back into the room with his bag.

* * *

"Sheriff Carnegie?" Sam asked as they walked into the Sheriff's office.

"Sheriff, what happened?" Dean asked.

"I, uh, uh..." he said, shrugging and shaking his head.

"I don't know!" he admitted, indicating the interview room where two young women were sitting at the table crying.

Sam and Dean exchanged uneasy looks, wishing that Elena was there but she'd denied it, saying that she still wasn't playing FBI. They knew that it was because they didn't get her past the yellow tape at the Lincoln scene.

"Excuse us, girls. Hi, we're with the FBI." Dean said, unsure of how to take the teenage girls.

"Can you tell us what happened?" Sam questioned.

"It was horrible!" One girl cried.

"Way horrible." The other agreed.

"What was horrible?" Sam asked.

"I thought she'd be nice!"

"I still can't believe it."

"Believe what?" Dean sighed, frustrated already.

"She took Danielle!"

"Who?" Dean demanded.

The girls looked at each other hesitantly.

"It's okay, you're safe, just, tell us. Who took your friend?" Sam asked.

"It was... Paris Hilton." The first girl said.

They stared at her.

"Sorry?" Sam asked.

"She looked really good, though."

"Skinny!"

"Skinny and fast."

"What… wait… huh?" Dean said, confused.

"Uh, um... where did they go?" Sam asked.

"We don't know."

"They just vanished."

"Would you excuse us for just a minute?" Dean asked, steering Sam outside.

"Paris Hilton's not dead as far as we know, right?" Dean whispered.

"Pretty sure, no." Sam said, shaking his head.

"Which means it's not a…"

"Ghost. No." Sam finished.

"So, what? Paris Hilton is a homicidal maniac…" Dean said.

"Or we missed something." Sam nodded.

"What do you wanna do?" Dean asked.

* * *

Elena was leaning against the Impala when the same officer that she clashed with at the crime scene came walking out.

"What are you, some kinda sicko who likes being around cops?" he demanded, noticing her.

"Why yes, officer, I can't resist you." Elena said, smiling at him tauntingly, unsure why this cop had something against her.

"Why don't you leave before you get in some trouble?" he asked.

"I would, but I'm waiting on my friends… again." She said, gesturing to Sam and Dean who were walking out of the building.

"Right." he scoffed, shaking his head as he turned to walk away.

She glared after him as they came walking up to her.

"I can't believe I missed it." Sam said, shaking his head.

"Missed what?" Elena asked.

"Went back over the other two vics. There was blood loss. Major." Sam said.

"Oh, well, being a gory smear will do that to you." Dean said.

"No, I… I mean more blood loss than a… a car crash or a head wound should cause, almost like it…"

"Something's feeding." Dean realized.

"Yeah." Sam nodded.

"Awesome." Dean sighed.

"And then…" Sam pulled out a plastic bag.

"There were these." He said, holding out the bag to show them two large things.

"What are those, seeds?" Dean asked, taking it from him.

"Yeah. They were in both vics' bellies." Sam nodded.

Dean quickly handed him the bag back and wiped his hand on his jacket.

"I hope you washed your hands." He said.

"They're unlike any seed I've ever seen before, Dean." Sam said.

"Wow, just when I thought you couldn't get any geekier." Dean said, patting his arm before turning to climb into the Impala.

* * *

"Yahtzee!" Sam announced as they all sat around researching.

"What?" Elena asked.

"The seeds aren't from around here. In fact, they're not from any tree or plant in the country." Sam said.

"Where are they from?" Dean said.

"Eastern Europe. From a forest in the Balkans, which is not even there anymore. It was chopped down, like, thirty years ago."

"So?" Dean asked.

"So, local legend has it that the forest was guarded by a pagan god whose name was Leshi. Um, a mischievous god, could take on infinite forms…"

"And let me guess. He liked to munch on his fans." Dean finished.

"Yep." Sam chuckled. "Could be appeased only with the blood from his worshippers. It would drain 'em, then stuff their stomachs with the seeds." Sam explained.

"So how's he doing it? What, he touches James Dean's keychain and then morphs into James Dean?" Dean asked.

"It's as good a guess as any." Sam said.

"How do we kill him?" Elena questioned.

"Says here to chop off his head with an iron axe." Sam said, looking up at them.

"All right. Let's go gank ourselves a Paris Hilton." Dean nodded.

* * *

Sam and Dean walked directly up to the door that said **Closed for Renovations**, walking in to see a room decorated like a clearing in the woods. Elena was looking around for anywhere else that Paris Hilton might be hiding despite her insistence that they stay together. A path led up to a white house with a wax man standing on the front porch in a suit. Sam immediately noticed a young woman tied to a tree.

"Hey." He ran over to check her pulse.

"She alive?" Dean asked, holding the axe as he walked up to him.

"Yeah. Barely." Sam answered.

The axe suddenly flew out of Dean's hands and embedded itself into a tree on the other side of the. They spun around to see Paris Hilton standing there. She grinned and reared back, punching Dean multiple times in the face and sending him collapsing to the ground. She flipped her hair casually as Sam lunged at her. She shoved him and sent him flying across the room and falling to the ground as well, unconscious.

"Awesome." She said, raisign her stilleto-clad foot before stomping on Dean's face.

* * *

Elena heard a crash and turned to run in the direction that it came from. But then she heard something different and her head whipped to the door to see a security keypad that was flashing an angry red color.

"Son of a…" she hissed, realizing that the owner must have noticed their break-in the night before and turned on his security system.

She ran out of the building, hoping that Sam and Dean could kill the Leshi on their own. When she saw the cop cars pull up, she ran out into the street as the six cops streamed out of their cars. She raised her hand to her mouth and whistled loudly, causing them to turn to her. Among them, of course, was her old cop friend.

"Sorry boys, I couldn't help myself." She said with a wink, turning to run.

It helped that she was in all black clothing. She smiled, satisfied, when she heard them pursuing her. Then she realized that she had no idea where she was going and that the cops were pursuing her in a car.

"Shit! Shit shit shit! Shit!" she repeated as she pumped her legs as fast as she could.

The sirens were getting closer and she ducked into an alleyway. She heard the car screech to a stop and the men began pursuing her on foot. They were no match for her sprint as the police officers were middle aged men. But, as she ran out of the other end, another cop car screeched to a stop in front of her as she attempted to cross the street.

"Fuck!" she shouted, hesitating before attempting to dart around the car.

The officer scrambled out of the front seat and snagged her arm before she could get away. She struggled with him for a moment before he manged to turn her and press her against the car, yanking her arms behind her back.

"Olivia Fisher, if that's even your real name… you are under arrest. You have the right to remain silent…" the cop began to say as he clapped the cold handcuffs on her wrist.

Elena bit her lip and rolled her eyes as the police officer pulled her away from the car and shoved her non-too-gently into the backseat. She sighed as she leaned her head back, struggling with the bobby pin that was attached to her sleeve.

"Whenever you're ready, boys." She grumbled, wondering why the hell it was taking them so long.

* * *

**Author's Note: Sorry for the cliffhanger! I hope you liked it! Please review! Also, Elena is going to get some help getting out of this situation she's in but her help isn't going to come from the Winchesters.**

**Below I have the first draft of my Bonnie & Clyde – Elena & Dean story. Please read it and let me know what you think so far. I don't want to publish it if it's completely horrible. It's set in the 1960's, by the way, just because I feel more comfortable writing in that time rather than the 20's when Bonnie & Clyde actually lived. I hope you don't mind.**

* * *

His name was Dean Winchester. There were many labels put on him. He was a criminal. A murderer. A thief. A psychopath. But there was only one that mattered to me. The label that I gave him. The love of my life.

* * *

"Elena, what are you doing?" her mother's voice interrupted her thoughts as she continued to wipe down the same spot on the table.

"Sorry, Mother." she sighed, quickly snapping out of it and pulling away from the table to walk behind the counter.

"The table by the door needs coffee. Keep up, Elena." Miranda Gilbert berated her daughter.

Elena grabbed the coffee pot and carried it to the table, smiling politely at Sheriff William Forbes and his wife, Elizabeth Forbes. When she turned to their daughter and her best friend, Caroline Forbes, the blonde grinned and winked at her. Elena smiled at back and took her water to refill it.

"Thank you, Elena." William, otherwise known as Bill, said, smiling at her as she came back with the water.

"It's my pleasure, Sheriff Forbes." She said, smiling as nicely as she could at the man.

"Elena, button up your sweater." Her father instructed her as he came out of the kitchen holding a stack of plates that Jeremy had just washed.

She bit back a snippy remark and reached down to button up the last three buttons of her sweater.

"Dry these off." Grayson Gilbert instructed her, setting them on the counter.

Elena sighed and began doing exactly that as she stood behind the long bar. Caroline came bounding up as her parents went to pay for their lunch.

"What are you doing tonight?" Caroline asked, a wide smile on her face.

"Whatever my parents instruct me to do, I suppose." Elena sighed, scrubbing angrily at the plate she was holding.

"Well… that's boring." Caroline said, rolling her eyes as she slid onto a stool.

"What would you like me to do, Care?" Elena asked, looking up at her.

"Come to my house and try on the new dresses that Daddy got for me." the happy blonde said with a gleeful look.

Elena sighed and looked around.

"Mother, may I go to Caroline's home tonight?" she asked, looking over at Miranda.

"Of course, darling. Just don't get back home too late." The Gilbert matriarch replied.

Elena turned back to Caroline with an exasperated expression.

"She's only saying yes because your parents are standing there and she wouldn't dare to look like anything but the perfect mother in front of them." She whispered.

"Of course. We should talk about the Salvatores while you're there. Oh that Damon is so dreamy." Caroline said happily, sighing.

"Care, you're with Matt Donovan, or did you forget?" Elena smirked, leaning forward to shake her head at her.

"I remember." Caroline shrugged, grinning at her.

"We're not going to talk about the Salvatores. I'd be happy never to hear their names again." Elena huffed, slamming a plate on the counter.

"Gently, Elena." Miranda berated her as she passed.

"Yes, Elena. Gently." Caroline repeated.

"Oh go away!" Elena snapped darkly, throwing the wet rag at her.

"Ew!" Caroline complained, throwing it back before turning to walk off as her parents made to leave the diner.

"See you tonight." The blonde threw over her shoulder before prancing out of the restaurant.

Elena rolled her eyes before realizing that Caroline had left her favorite lipstick on the counter. She grabbed it and looked up, prepared to call her friend back but she was already long gone. Elena shrugged and shoved the lipstick in her apron before looking down as she went back to drying the dishes. She heard the bell to the door ring but she didn't look up to see who it was, not really caring about it. When she heard footsteps approach and someone slid into the seat across from where she was standing, she smiled and shook her head, thinking it was Caroline coming back for her lipstick. The fact that the footfalls were too heavy for her best friend didn't occur to her.

"Did you forget something?" she said, looking up as she pulled the lipstick out of her pocket and held it up.

Instead of being greeted with her friend's familiar bright smile, she was instead greeted with gorgeous green eyes and a smirk that made her heart skip a beat.

"Not as far as I know." The man said in a deep voice, sounding amused.

Elena simply stared at him as he reached out and took the lipstick from her fingers, opening it to reveal the dramatic red color.

"I don't think it's really my color, do you?" He questioned, leaning forward to grin at her as she grew closer to her quickly reddening face.

"Um… no… I suppose not." She finally managed to stammer out.

His smirk grew into a lopsided grin and she felt her breath catch in her throat at the beauty of it.

"Though I do think it would look rather good on you." he informed her, holding the lipstick out.

She took it with a shaky hand.

"Thank you." Elena whispered, shoving it back into her apron.

"I liked it better when you were teasing me." he said.

"I didn't know who you were when I was teasing you. I… I thought you were my friend." She said.

"I can be your friend." He offered.

Elena stared at him with wide eyes.

"But I don't know your name. You can't be my friend if I don't know your name." she argued weakly, not even certain as to why she was arguing.

He let out a chuckle and she was certain that this mysterious man couldn't get any more beautiful than he already was. She was transfixed by him.

"Do you want to know my name?" he asked.

She just stared at him with a startled expression.

"Elena, do you want to ask this nice man what he wants to drink?" Miranda reminded her, finally noticing the situation.

"Drink?" she asked hoarsely.

"Coffee would be great. Black." He said, nodding at her as amusement still showed in his voice and facial expression.

Elena nodded and turned to pour him a cup of coffee, splashing some on the counter and her hands, cursing quietly when it burned her skin to a pink color. She grabbed a towel and wiped it off of her hands and the cup before carrying it over to him. She was distracted once again by his striking eyes when she set it on the counter.

"Well, Elena…" she found herself loving the way his lips formed her name and then she found herself wondering why she felt so drawn to this man.

"… since you didn't answer me, I'm just gonna let you wonder what my name is." He said and she noticed the slight southern accent in his voice.

"What makes you think I will wonder anything once you leave this diner? For all you know, I'll forget all about you." she fired back, finally getting her voice (and snarkiness) back.

He let out a laugh before he sipped at his coffee.

"That's what I like to hear." He said, winking.

Elena's heart skipped a beat once again.

"Elena, I think that Mr. Saltzman would like to have his food." Miranda said, handing her a plate with a burger and fries on it.

"Sorry, Mother." Elena said, flushing as she took the food and carried it over to the high school teacher.

"Thank you, Miss Gilbert." He said as she set it in front of him.

"It's my pleasure, Mr. Saltzman." She said with an easy smile.

Alaric Saltzman was one of her favorite people in the town. It helped that he was engaged to her aunt, Jenna.

"Are you looking forward to summer ending?" he asked, smiling back at her.

"Don't scare me, Mr. Saltzman. It doesn't end for another month." She replied, shaking her head as she turned to walk off.

She looked up with a grin still on her face to see the man staring at her. She immediately noticed that he was wearing a rather casual outfit that included jeans and a flannel shirt with a jacket over it. Work boots were on his feet. His hair was cut short and quite messy but she found that the entire look suited him. Elena shook her head as she walked back around the counter. She needed to stop thinking of this strange man in such a way.

"Would you like something to eat?" she asked, the nervousness back.

"My order was already taken by this lovely young lady." He said, gesturing to her mother, who blushed and smiled.

"You are rather charming. Are you new in town?" Miranda asked as Elena watched them (mostly him).

"I'm passing through, actually. I'm travelling down to Texas to see my brother." he nodded.

"Hmm… Virginia is rather far away from Texas, don't you think?" she asked.

"Well… I was living in New York before. So it is a while to travel but it's worth it." the man said.

"New York? Really? We have relatives there. Where were you living?" Miranda asked, smiling at him.

"Ossining." He replied, his eyes flashing to Elena.

She stared at him with wide eyes. Elena often paid quite a lot of attention class at school. Especially in Mr. Saltzman's class, history. And she knew of one particular institution that was located in Ossining, New York. Sing Sing correction facility. But she didn't dare bring that up.

"So, is this your sister? Or your niece?" he asked, gesturing to Elena.

"Oh no, this is my daughter, Elena." Miranda said, blushing even redder before she turned to grab his food for him.

"Let us know if you need anything." She said as she set the food in front of them and then went to the back room to make sure that Jeremy wasn't messing with the ovens again.

"So… you're in high school?" he asked.

"I'm just approaching my final year." She confirmed, feeling jumpy around him once again.

"So that makes you… seventeen?" he questioned.

She narrowed her eyes at him and leaned forward.

"I don't even know your name. Why would I divulge my age to you?" she questioned.

He grinned back at her.

"Because if you tell me how old you are… I'll tell you my name. I know that you are going to tell me because you are very curious as to what my name is. It's driving you insane, I can see it." he said teasingly.

Elena squinted at him and pursed her lips.

"I'm eighteen." She informed him.

"That's nice. I'm twenty-three." He informed her.

"How wonderful for you. Your name?" she asked expectantly.

"See? You do want to know my name." he said, taking a bite of a fry.

She stared at him impatiently.

"What do I get, if I tell you?" he asked.

"You already know my name and my age." She shot back.

He let out a chuckle and picked up his burger to take a bite.

"Dean Winchester." He said.

Elena was unable to keep herself from smiling. The name was perfect. It suited him just right, from his tousled hair to his beautiful eyes and smile to the casual clothing that fit him so well. Dean Winchester.

"It's nice to meet you, Dean Winchester. I'm Elena Gilbert." She said, leaning forward to grin at him, all nervousness suddenly gone from her mind.

* * *

**TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK PLEASE**


	7. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer: I do not own TVD or Supernatural**

**Thanks to diehardromantic, Nyssandria, Dark-Supernatural-Angel, neontreeslover, RHatch89, slayerdiaries, DrawingMyHeartOut, Dark Alana, nluvwithemmettcullen, xxPaige23xx, chiwi, MaddAlice, LineChokor, Hollywood17, TheElegantFaerie, DamonSalvatoreLover789, and MrsMaeveSalvatoreMikaelson for reviewing!**

* * *

Elena sighed, throwing her head back frustratingly as they pulled up to the station. The cop who was her best enemy leaned in as he opened the door.

"Told you that I would get you, sweetheart." He said with a grin.

Elena turned her head to smirk at him.

"You gonna keep me, hot stuff?" she shot back, winking.

It was then that she knew that the combination of being around Dean and Gabriel had done wonders with her attitude.

"Come on." he snapped, grabbing her arm and hauling her out of the car and inside.

Elena really hoped that the boys were doing all right. Especially since she had the feeling that they were in danger.

* * *

Dean and Sam woke up around the same time, both males realizing that they were tied up to two trees side by side with Danielle next to Sam. They noticed the Leshi sitting on a tree stump still in the form of Paris Hilton, filing her nails with a knife.

"Oh. I'm so glad you're awake for this. This is gonna be huge." She said happily, grinning up at them.

Sam and Dean exchanged a wary look, wondering where Elena was.

"Super. Yeah, I wouldn't wanna miss it." Dean said, turning back to face her as he pulled at his ropes discreetly.

"I mean, I've been stuffing myself with fast food lately. So it's nice to do the ritual right. Prepare a nice, slow meal for a change." She sighed.

"Just like the good old days, huh?" Sam said, also trying to distract her.

"You have no idea. People adored me. They used to throw themselves at me, with smiles on their faces." the Leshi said.

"Yeah, I guess these days nobody gives a flying crap about some backwoods forest god, huh?" Dean chuckled.

The Leshi suddenly stopped filing her nails with a glare directed at Dean.

"No. Not since they cut down my forest and built a Yugo plant." She snapped.

"March of progress, sister." Dean shrugged.

She continued filing her nails, staring at them.

"For years now, I've been wandering. Hungry. Scared. Scrounging for scraps. So not sexy." She said, shaking her head.

Dean shook his head disgustedly.

"But then, the best thing ever happened." She said, putting the knife down and leaning back with her legs crossed. "Someone tripped the apocalypse. And I thought, what the hell, I'm tired of watching what I eat. I wanna pig out. So I found this little place. It's awesome. Adoring fans stroll right in the door." She gestured around.

"Yeah. But they're not your fans." Sam argued.

"So? They worship Lincoln, Gandhi, Hilton... whatever. I'll take what I can get." She informed them.

"You know, I gotta tell you, you are not the first god we've met, but you are... the nuttiest." Dean said.

"No, you, you people, you're the crazy ones. You used to worship gods. But this?" she gestured to her Paris Hilton disguise. "This is what passes for idolatry? Celebrities? What have they got besides small dogs and spray tans?" she said, shaking her head.

Sam frowned as Dean raised his eyebrows, nodding in agreement with her.

"You people used to have old-time religion. Now you have Us Weekly." The Leshi said as if it was tiring for her.

"I don't know, I'm more of a Penthouse Forum man myself." Dean said, winking at her.

The Leshi stood and stalked over to him, narrowing hr eyes at him.

"Maybe, but... there's still a lot of yummy meat on those bones, boy." She said, trailing a finger down his cheek.

"Well I hate to break it to you, sister, but, uh... you can't eat me. See, I'm not a Paris Hilton BFF. I've never even seen House of Wax." Dean informed her as Sam frowned at him.

"No. But I can totally read your mind, Dean. I know who your hero is. Your daddy. Am I right?" the Leshi said with a grin.

She smirked at him and walked over to the tree that the axe was embedded in. Dean continued to yank at his ropes with her back turned.

"And this belonged to him. Didn't it? Poor little Dean. All you ever wanted was to be loved by your idol. One distant father figure, coming right up." She said, reaching out to touch the axe.

* * *

Elena glared at the wall as she sat in the cell. Her fingers were black with the fingerprints they'd taken and she also had to get mugshots. If the people in Mystic Falls ever found out that she was arrested, she would never hear the end of it. Luckily, she wouldn't be in the system. She'd never done anything worthy of being put in the system. She looked up as someone walked back towards her.

"We found out who you are, little miss." Her favorite police officer said.

Elena's eyes widened.

"You what?" she said, her eyes widening.

"The finest cat burglar on the East Coast. I can't imagine what you're doing in Ohio." He said with a shrug.

"I'm a what?" she asked, confused.

"You're all over the system, Miss Cojones."

Elena choked on air and thumped her chest as she struggled to breath.

"Yeah, you thought you hid your tracks well. Coming into town and pretending to be a reporter. I suppose you wanted to steal one of those valuable artifacts at the was museum." He said, leaning against the bars.

"You're good." Elena wheezed, trying to figure out what the hell was going on.

"Imagine the look on those FBI agents' face when they show up and we've got you here. In little Canton, Ohio. Oh it'll be good." He said proudly.

"FBI agents?" she questioned.

"Yep, called them half an hour ago. Said they got some men on their way that were in Salt Lake City for another case. We're already getting congratulated for finding you." he said with a cocky grin.

"Well I suppose that you might get a promotion, big boy." Elena said, wondering how they could possibly confuse her with an East Coast cat burglar.

"Oh I know I will." He said with a grin, turning to walk off.

"What the hell?" she whispered, confused.

* * *

Dean finally got his hands free and sprinted across the clearing, tackling the Leshi before she could touch the axe. Sam yanked desperately at his own ropes as the Leshi quickly overpowered Dean, throwing punch after punch ass he sat on top of him. Sam finally got free and ran at the tree, struggling to free the axe for a few moments. Finally, he had it in his hands and he swung at the Leshi's head. The creature flew off of Dean and he continued to bring the axe down five more times before the Leshi was finally beheaded. Sam sighed, panting in exertion as he wiped the blood that was splattered across the face. He turned to Dean, who was staring up at him.

"Not a word." He said, holding a hand up.

Sam smiled, unable to keep his mouth shut.

"Dude. You just got whaled on by Paris Hilton!" he said, laughing.

"Shut up." Dean snapped, lying back and grunting in pain as he held his head.

"Where's Elena?" Sam realized.

"I heard sirens before we got knocked out." Dean said, standing up.

They walked to the main room and caught sight of the flashing security system.

"Dammit! What if she was arrested?" Dean said, turning to Sam.

"Well I guess we better get to the police station." Sam said, shaking his head as they walked out to the Impala.

* * *

Elena didn't have to wait long for her answer. The same cop came back with his keys and unlocked her cell.

"Your ride is here." He said, pulling her out and clapping cuffs on her wrists once again.

"I hope they'll be more fun than you are." She shot back as he pushed her down the short hallway.

They reached the front and she caught sight of two men standing there wearing black suits. She stopped short when she immediately recognized them by their hair.

"What did you say your name was again?" the cop standing in front of them asked.

"I'm Agent Smith and this is Agent Jones. They're not hard names to remember." The shorter one said, annoyed.

"Hello boys." Elena said, smirking as she finally realized what was going on.

They turned and one looked at her with a serious expression as the other smirked.

"Well, this department has done a bang up job. We've been trying to catch this girl for years." The shorter one said, shaking his head.

"Are you sure this is the girl? She doesn't look a day over twenty." One of the cops spoke up.

"Did the computer tell you this was the girl?" the serious one said, narrowing his eyes at them.

"Yeah." Her favorite cop nodded.

"Then it's the girl. Trust me." the shorter one said.

"Come on." the serious one walked forward and took Elena's arm.

"Sayonara." The short 'agent' said, saluting the men before following them out.

Elena turned to wink at the cops before they disappeared from view.

When they finally made it outside and they took her around the corner, Elena whirled around to stare at them.

"Miss Cojones, really? You named my criminal alias after testicles?" she demanded.

Cas looked at Gabriel with narrowed eyes and she suddenly felt the cuffs disappear.

"It was up to Gabriel to come up with the file for you." Castiel said.

"Oh relax, Cassie boy, it worked, didn't it? You, hot lips, owe us your gratitude instead of using your judgy eyes on me." Gabriel said, pointing at her.

"You used Cojones as my as my name!"

"Because I'm pointing out that you have the cojones to get arrested and smartmouth the officers the entire way to the station and even when you're sitting in your cell!" Gabriel shot back, grinning at her.

Elena couldn't help but smile at the archangel.

"The Winchesters are close." Cas said, breaking into their conversation.

"That's my cue." Gabriel said with a grin before disappearing.

Elena turned to Castiel.

"Thank you. And tell Gabriel that I'm thankful too. I honestly had no idea how I was going to get out of that situation." She sighed, running her fingers through her hair.

"You're welcome." Cas said, nodding at her.

She suddenly realized what was so strange about him.

"Cas where's your coat? You look naked without it." she said with a smile.

"Gabriel insisted that I leave it off. He said that I would look more agent-like without it." Cas informed her.

"I think you look plenty agent-like with it on." Elena shrugged.

He looked at her before looking down. When she blinked, the tan overcoat was back on him and he looked normal again.

"That's better. I don't like it when anyone messes with my angel." She said with a fond smile.

He hesitantly smiled back at her. When she heard the distinct sound of the Impala, she looked past Cas and started forward. When she turned back, he was gone.

"Angels." She sighed, shaking her head before turning to run to the Impala.

She practically dove into the backseat.

"Did you kill Paris Hilton?" she asked, looking between them.

"Yeah, did you get arrested?" Dean asked as they pulled out of the parking lot.

"Yeah. Cas and Gabriel helped me out." she nodded.

"This has been a weird day." Sam pointed out.

* * *

Elena was walking to the car two steps ahead of the boys as Dean talked on the phone. They hadn't even bothered to try to stay the night. Since Elena was arrested, they all thought that it was best that they get the hell outta Dodge.

"Uh-huh. All right. Thank you." Dean said before hanging up.

"Sheriff Carnegie. Danielle's gonna be all right. She's sworn off The Simple Life, but other than that…" he trailed off.

"Glad she's okay." Sam nodded.

"It gets better. Sheriff's putting out an APB on Paris Hilton." He laughed, as they smiled and shook their heads.

"That oughta be good." Dean said. "But apparently a prisoner was broken out by two FBI agents. Smith and Jones? Her name was… uh… what did he say again? Miss Cojones?"

Elena made a choking noise and turned to look at them with wide eyes as Dean opened the trunk of the Impala with a smirk.

"Gabriel thinks he's funny." Elena said in explanation.

They both grinned at her as they threw their bags into the trunk and closed it. Sam turned to walk to the backseat but Dean stopped him with a hand on his sleeve.

"Hey, listen, I was thinking about what you said yesterday. About me keeping too tight of a leash on you." he said to Sam.

Elena watched them quietly, wondering where Dean was going with this.

"Hell, maybe you're right. I mean, look, I'm not exactly Mister Innocent in this whole mess either, you know. I did break the first seal." He sighed, shaking his head.

"You didn't know." Sam assured him.

"Yeah, well, neither did you." Dean replied.

Sam looked down as Elena felt the urge to hug Dean. He finally understood.

"I'm not saying demon blood was a great way to go, but, you did kill Lilith." He sighed, leaning against the trunk.

"And start the apocalypse." Sam reminded him miserably, leaning against the backseat door.

"Which neither of us saw coming, I mean, who'd have thought killing Lilith would've been a bad thing?" Dean said. "Point is, I was so worried about watching your every move that I didn't see what it was actually doing to you."

Sam and Elena both stared at him as he paused.

"So, for that I'm sorry." He said, looking over at Sam.

"Thanks." Sam said, looking up at him.

Dean pulled the keys out of the trunk and backed away from the car.

"So where do we go from here?" he asked.

"They way I see it, we got one shot at surviving this." Sam said, turning as well as Elena stepped up to stand with them.

"What's that?" Dean questioned.

"Maybe I am on deck for the devil, maybe same with you and Michael, maybe there's no changing that." Sam shrugged.

"Well that's encouraging." Dean said sarcastically.

"But, we can stop wringing our hands over it. We gotta just grab onto whatever's in front of us, kick its ass, and go down fighting." Sam suggested.

Dean considered this for a moment before nodding.

"I can get on board with that." he said, looking at Elena.

"I'm always on board." She said, looking between them.

"Okay. But we're gonna have to do it on the same level." Sam reminded Dean.

Dean smiled slightly.

"You got it." he said.

Sam nodded and Dean turned to walk to the driver's side.

"I say we get the hell outta here before Miss Cojones here gets arrested." He said making Elena flush red.

Sam simply chuckled.

Dean suddenly stopped and looked at the keys before they could climb in.

"Hey." Sam turned around to look at him and Dean held out the keys.

"You wanna drive?" he said.

A slow smile spreaded across Elena's face.

Sam glanced down at the keys.

"You sure?" Sam asked.

"Yeah, I could, uh... I could use a nap." Dean shrugged.

Elena moved to the backseat and watched as Dean tossed Sam the keys when they crossed paths at the front of the car. She leaned in and pressed a soft kiss to Dean's lips.

"What was that for?" he asked, looking down at her.

"For being amazing." She shrugged, grinning up at him before climbing into the backseat.

* * *

**A WEEK LATER**

Elena stood between Sam and Dean as they walked to the counter. When they reached it, the doctor standing behind it looked up as they pulled out their badges.

"You expect me to believe you're CDC?" he asked skeptically.

Elena's eyes widened.

"Excuse me?" Sam asked, uncertain of how to respond to that.

"It's just that you're a day early. First time in history I haven't sat on my ass waiting for you people." He scoffed.

"New administration. A change you can believe in." Dean said with a grin, making Elena exchange an amused look with Sam.

"Right." The doctor said with a roll of his eyes before he turned to lead them to the morgue.

When they got inside and they'd donned gloves and protective capes, the coroner walked to a table and pulled a sheet of of the corpse they were looking for. The man looked to be at least eighty-years-old.

"Meet Xavier. Date of birth, April 3, 1984." the coroner said, looking down at the corpse.

Elena looked up at Sam and Dean with a confused look.

"I know. I ran the DNA twice. That's definitely him." she nodded.

"Well, he wasn't big on the sunscreen, huh?" Dean said with a slight grimace.

"So, what's your theory?" Sam asked, looking at her.

"All I know is, decedent's male, twenty-five years old… and he died of old age." The coroner shrugged before turning to walk away.

Elena stared down at the body as Sam and Dean exchanged a confused look.

* * *

"You were right about this one. It's definitely a job." Dean said into the phone that Elena was holding as she walked between the brothers and they left the hospital.

"Thought so. Any other stiffs in town?" Bobby asked over the speaker.

"Just the one body." Sam said.

"Anything else?"

"Couple missing persons, but usual for a town this size." Elena informed him.

"Well, check 'em out." Bobby urged them.

"You think they're connected?" Dean asked.

"Call it a hunch." The older hunter said.

"You got it. And, by the way, how you doing?" Dean asked and Elena and Sam looked at him with wide eyes that said, 'stop talking'.

"Doing?" Bobby said and they could hear him squinting into the phone.

"Yeah. You know, just... in general?" Dean shrugged.

Elena shook her head.

"Oh, you mean my legs. Well, I'm just weepin' in my Haagen-Dazs. Idjit." Bobby snapped before hanging up.

Dean looked put down as he looked at them.

"We told you to stop." Elena and Sam said at the same time.

* * *

"That's the most recent." Mrs. Whitlow, the wife of one of the missing persons in town, said, handing them a photo of her elderly husband.

"How long has he been missing?" Sam asked as Elena tucked it into her bag.

"Oh, I knew right away when he didn't come home Tuesday night." The woman said, nodding.

"Is there someplace he likes to go after work, maybe? A favorite bar?" Dean questioned.

Mrs. Whitlow laughed, shaking her head.

"No. Tuesdays, he always works a bit late, but he always comes straight home." she informed them.

"May I use your facilities, ma'am?" Elena asked with a smile.

"Of course, down at the end of the hall." the kind woman said, smiling back as Elena stood and excused herself from the room.

Instead of going into the bathroom, she slipped into the study. She immediately began shifting through the papers on the desk and, when she didn't find anything relevant, she walked to the coat hanging on the door. She dug through the pockets and pulled out what that she found. One receipt for a Chinese brothel that totaled $250.

"Working late my ass." She muttered, shoving the receipt into her pocket before exiting the study.

* * *

"Well, at least he's consistent. Same room every Tuesday, hourly rates." Sam shrugged.

"Hope I got that kind of kick when I'm his age." Dean said with a smirk.

Elena turned to shoot him a look, making his smile falter.

"Yeah, like either of us will live that long." Sam scoffed.

It was Sam's turn to receive the scolding look and he looked like a kicked puppy as they approached the door that they were directed to by the unwilling Madame.

"So... what do you think's in there?" Sam asked.

All of them paused, thinking on it.

"A wrinkly, gooey corpse." Dean suggested.

"Ew." Elena said, wrinkling her nose and hoping to God that wasn't what was in there.

Sam pulled out his lockpick as Elena and Dean kept watch to both sides of the hallway.

"Oh, God! Oh, God! Oh! Oh, God!" they heard someone shouting from inside the room.

They exchanged panicked looks and Sam stood. They both looked at Elena.

"Can you…?" Sam trailed off.

"What you can't break down the door?" she said, scowling between them.

"I'd rather not." Dean said pathetically, rubbing his shoulder where the scar from Castiel's hand was.

She rolled her eyes and turned to concentrate, making the door fly open.

"Hey! What the…" they heard as they ran into the room.

All three stopped short to see a man and woman, both naked with the woman sitting on top of the man looking back at them. Elena clapped her hands over her eyes.

"Oh." Sam said.

"God." Dean muttered.

Another woman slid out from underneath the covers.

"It's gooey." Sam said.

Elena's hands flew out and covered their eyes as both women fled the bed.

"Sorry. Got the wrong room." Elena said, grabbing the back of their jackets to yank them out.

"Close the door!" the man shouted.

Elena was about to slam the door shut when she noticed something and shoved it open again.

"Hey." She walked up to him and looked at his torso before pulling the picture of the elderly man out of her purse.

The two men had the exact same tattoo on their lower arm.

"Nice tattoo." She said, throwing the picture on his bare, quite chiseled chest.

"Happen to know anybody named Cliff Whitlow?" Sam asked as him and Dean walked up to the bed.

"Never heard of him." the man said, shaking his head.

"Well, that's weird." Dean said as he picked up a pair of pants and pulled a wallet out.

After looking for a second, he pulled out an ID.

"Cause you're carrying his wallet." He said, lifting it into the air.

Elena cocked an eyebrow at the man and Dean yanked the covers back. Elena whirled around as the brothers looked at the man's bare body.

"Your wife told us about your, uh, birthmark there. That's nice. Well, you look great. Cliff. Did you get some work done?" Dean asked as Cliff pulled the covers back up.

Cliff sighed heavily and shook his head.

* * *

"Please don't tell my wife." The man pleaded, robed now so that Elena could actually look at him.

"Slow down." Dean said, putting his hands up.

"I'm begging you. As far as she knows, I'm dead. For the love of God, let's keep it that way." Cliff pleaded.

"How can you possibly be Cliff Whitlow?" Elena demanded.

"I can't tell you." he said, shaking his head.

"Well, either you tell us or we tell the missus." Dean threatened.

"Okay! Okay! It was a game." He said, throwing his hands up in surrender as he sat on the bed.

"Like... XBox?" Sam asked, making them all look at him.

"What's XBox?" Cliff asked and Elena believed that he was actually an older man now. "No. Poker. High stakes. Instead of cash, you play for years."

"What is that supposed to mean?" Dean demanded.

"Look, I know it sounds crazy. Guy comes up to me at a bar, invites me to play. Gives me twenty-five of these weirdo poker chips, right? Chants some mumbo humbo over them, says now they're twenty-five years. I'm laughing, but then I come out up. And look at me." Cliff explained, gesturing to his body.

"What was he chanting?" Sam asked.

Cliff laughed, shaking his head.

"How should I know? All I know is, my bad hip's good, I threw away my glasses. One of those ladies was here for free! Man's some kind of miracle worker." He said, shrugging.

"What does this miracle worker look like?" Elena asked.

"Just a guy. Maybe thirty-five, brown hair. Irish accent. His name was Patrick." Cliff informed them.

"All right, all right. Where's this game at?" Dean asked.

"He said he likes to keep moving. Never stays in one bar long. And he finds you." Cliff said.

"Thank you, Cliff." Dean said as they turned to head for the door.

"Oh, and, uh...stay classy." Dean said sarcastically.

* * *

"It sounds crazy, right?" Dean asked as they sat crowded around a table. Elena was leaning back and her feet were in Dean's lap.

"No. There's lore on it. Goes back centuries. Traveling card player pops into town. You beat him, you get your best years back. 'Course, most folks lose." Bobby explained.

"Well, that would explain the crunchy corpse." Dean nodded.

"Supposedly, this player's a hell of a card shark. Got a lot of years in the bank. You find the bar he's working in yet?"

"There's a lot of dives in this town. We're gonna have to split up." Dean said, his fingers trailing over Elena's ankle.

"Well, why you still talking to me?" Bobby demanded before hanging up.

"Well his winning attitude just cheers me up every time." Dean said.

"Take it easy on him. If you were in his situation and you couldn't help us like you wanted to, you would be crabby too." Elena admonished him.

"Fine. Let's go to bars. Sam?" Dean said.

"You two can go together. I'll go alone." He sighed.

"You're the best, Sam." Elena said, smiling up at him.

"Yeah yeah." He said, ruffling her hair as he passed.

"Hey, you got any of those pretty dresses I like?" Dean asked, winking at her.

"Maybe." She said with a coy smile.

* * *

Elena could practically feel Dean preening next to her as they entered the third bar that they'd been to which was the most fancy in the town. Seeing as they actually planned on staying at this one for more than a few moments, she finally slid off her jacket and heard him curse under his breath at the dress she was wearing.

"Maybe the pretty dress wasn't a great idea." He sighed, leaning in to brush his hand over her bare arm.

"Down boy." She whispered over her shoulder.

It was a halter neck that dipped low onto her back so most of her back was bare. It even showed off her tattoo which Dean always seemed strangely fascinated with when they were in bed. Elena was also feeling quite attracted to Dean. She'd convinced him to wear his FBI suit without the tie and the first few buttons of his white shirt undone. It was an amazing look and she couldn't believe she hadn't convinced him to wear it like that before. She reached out her hand and took his as they walked to the bar. She slid onto a stool and expected him to do the Sam. Instead he stood behind her and his hand trailed over her bare skin on her back.

"We're supposed to be investigating." She whispered, leaning her head back.

She'd actually curled her hair so it was tumbling around her shoulders in large ringlets.

"You look too beautiful for investigation." He murmured, his lips trailing over her shoulder.

Suddenly his phone rang and interrupted them. He pulled it out and held it to his ear.

"Find anything?" They both heard Sam question.

"Yeah, a whole bunch of squat. You?" Dean said as he continued to trail his fingers over Elena's back and enjoying the shivers he elicited from her.

"No, not a thing." Sam replied.

"All right. Well, you come up dry, circle back to the motel in two. Your turn to grab dinner." Dean said simply, brushing her hair away to get more access to her back.

"Usual?" Sam asked.

"Extra bacon for me. Extra cheese for Elena." Dean nodded.

Before hanging up and sliding into a seat next to Elena as the bartender walked to them.

"Two beers?" he asked.

"Yep." The man nodded, reaching for two bottles and setting them in front of them after opening them.

"You wouldn't happen to know of a poker game going on in back, would you?" Elena asked, leaning forward with interested eyes.

"It's a bar, not a casino." The bartender answered casually.

Dean sighed and began to dig into his pocket.

"My friend Ben told me you'd know." He said.

"Don't know any Ben." The man shrugged.

"Sure you do. You know, balding, smart-ass, real ladies' man?" Dean said with a grin.

The bartender leaned forward, frustrated.

"Listen, pal, I told you, I don't know any Ben. I don't know nothing about a game." He snapped.

"You sure? 'Cause, uh..." Dean slid a hundred dollar bill across the bar. "He sure seems to know you." he shrugged.

The bartender glanced over at Elena as if to judge whether Dean was for real or not. She shrugged and glanced down at the bill. He sighed and picked it up before opening his mouth to explain everything.

* * *

"Round back. Take the elevator down." The bartender yelled after them as they walked out of the back of the bar.

When the door slammed shut, Dean pushed her against it suddenly, covering her mouth with his.

"You… look… so… damn… good." He said between kisses.

"Dean… poker game." She gasped out as his hands slid around her back and pulled her closer to him as they splayed out on the bare skin.

They suddenly heard something clatter and they turned to see none other than Bobby wheeling around the corner.

"You two want to stop acting like horny teenagers?" he snapped.

"Bobby? What the hell are you doing here?" Dean demanded as they stepped away from the wall.

"Planting daisies. What's it look like? Came in on the case." Bobby said, glaring up at them.

"And you beat us here?" Elena questioned suspiciously.

"Well, brains trumps legs, apparently." He said grumpily.

He rolled around him and they followed, something seeming out of place.

"So, you found the game?" Dean asked.

"Yep." Bobby nodded.

"Did you stop it?" Elena questioned.

Bobby didn't answer, scaring them a bit.

"Bobby?" Dean said.

The older hunter suddenly stopped and turned around.

"Not exactly." He admitted, his eyes downcast.

"What did you do?" Dean demanded.

"I played, okay?" Bobby snapped.

They both stared at him with wide eyes before exchanging a wary look.

"And?" Dean asked carefully.

"I lost." Bobby admitted.

"Are you kidding me? You played some… some he-witch?" Dean demanded after a few moments of complete silence from everyone.

"Don't you take that tone with me." Bobby growled, pointing at him.

"You idiot!" Dean yelled.

"They're my years! I can do what I want!" Bobby argued.

"How many did you lose?" Elena sighed.

"Twenty-five." Bobby answered, avoiding her eyes.

She watched with wide eyes as Bobby aged before their eyes.

"We're not done." Dean snapped, taking her hand to drag her in the direction of the elevator.

Bobby followed them unwillingly.

Below the bar, they found another less crowded bar. They noticed a man talking to a couple that consisted of a middle-aged man and a young woman. As they drew closer, they immediately realized that he spoke with an Irish accent.

"Hey, man. Excuse me. Can I borrow you for a sec?" Dean said, grabbing his arm and making sure that the man saw his gun.

"Oh, yeah. Of course. Great. Good to see you." the man said, acting as though he knew Dean.

Elena followed them to a table across the room.

"Sorry to cut you short with Mr. and Mrs. Easy Marks over there." Dean snapped.

"Oh, no big." The man said, holding up a golden wristwatch. "Wasn't a total loss."

Elena watched as Dean pulled out his gun and held it underneath the table.

"Look, I don't know what it is you think I did to your wife or girlfriend…" the man, whose name was Patrick according to Bobby, said, glancing over at Elena.

Dean frowned, confused.

"… mother or sister, but, uh, I just want you to know, my feelings were real." He assured him and Elena rolled her eyes.

"That ain't my problem, man-witch. You owe my friend some years." Dean snapped.

"Oh, that's what this is. I'm sorry. He lost. Them's the breaks." He shrugged, putting a toothpick in his mouth.

"Well, then un-lose him." Dean demanded, cocking the gun.

Patrick glanced down and smirked.

"Oh, go ahead and shoot me, if it makes you feel better. Besides, I could use a good... you know... tickle. You want years? Great. Play me for 'em." He offered.

"Dean no." Elena said quickly.

Dean glanced up at her before looking back at the man.

"Fine." She glared at the back of his head as Bobby came rolling up to the table.

She couldn't help but curse the older hunter for getting Dean in this situation. Of course he was going to play the man for

"Dean…" Bobby began.

"They're my years. I can do what I want." Dean said harshly, throwing Bobby's words back in his face.

Bobby coughed and Patrick held up a cough drop.

"Lozenge?" he asked.

Bobby wheezed and Patrick shrugged.

"What? It's barely linty. Okay, well, suit yourself. Just trying to help." The Irishman said, putting it back in his pocket.

"All right, all right. Come on. Let's do this." Dean said.

"You understand the terms?" Patrick asked, setting a red case on the table.

It contained eight stacks of poker chips. Dean nodded once and Elena rolled her eyes, pulling her coat on and yanking the Impala keys out of Dean's pocket much to his chagrin.

"I'm not gonna watch you do this. You can find a way back to the hotel with Bobby. I swear to God if you die…" She trailed off, angry with him for risking himself like this.

It wasn't as though she could heal him of old age.

"Buy-in's twenty-five years." She heard Patrick tell Dean as she walked to the elevator.

"Make it fifty." Dean said.

* * *

Elena sighed as the door opened and Bobby rolled in.

"You ain't gonna like it." he warned her.

A moment later, an older man came walking in. If he hadn't been wearing the exact suit that Dean was and he wasn't carrying Dean's gun, she wouldn't have known who it was. It took one second for her face to darken dangerously and another two for her to cross the room and smack him over the head.

"Ow!" Dean protested, shying away from her anger.

"I told you!" she shouted.

"I got Bobby his years back! That's what matters." He defended himself.

"Congratulations. You're a damn hero." Elena snapped, turning away from him.

Moments later, Sam came walking in with to go stuff in his back. When he saw older Dean carrying a gun, he threw the food on a table and drew his own gun.

"Who the hell are you!" he demanded, panicked.

"Dude, relax. It's me." Dean said, raising his hands in surrender.

"Dean?" Sam asked, lowering his gun.

"Hi." Dean waved, sounding frustrated.

"What the hell happened?" Sam demanded.

"I, you know... found the game." Dean shrugged, heading for the food to pick up a burger.

"You f… I thought you said you were g-good at poker." Sam stammered, sounding pissed.

"I am. Shut up. So, you were just gonna shoot some old guy? Is that it?" Dean demanded, glaring at him.

"I didn't know what you were. I mean, have you seen you? You look like…"

"The old chick in Titanic. I know. shut up." Dean said, his mouth full.

"I was gonna say Emperor Palpatine." Sam shrugged and Dean shook his head.

"Either of you want to tell me what happened?" Sam asked Elena and Bobby.

"Bobby's an idiot. That's what happened." Dean snapped.

Elena was getting freaked out. It wasn't Dean's voice but he looked nothing like the Dean she was used to.

"Hey, nobody asked you to play." Bobby argued.

"Right. I should have just let you die." Dean scoffed.

"And for damn sure, nobody asked you to lose!" Bobby growled back.

Sam grinned and looked at Elena.

"It's like Grumpy Old Men." He said, making her laugh softly despite the stressful situation.

Dean and Bobby turned to Sam in unison.

"Shut up, Sam." they said at the same time.

"What the hell were you thinking? He's a witch. He's been playing poker since guys wore tights." Dean said to Bobby.

"You just don't get it." Bobby fired back.

"Yeah, I get it, Bobby. You saw a chance to turn the hands of the clock back and get out of that damn chair. Pretty tempting. I can imagine." Dean sighed, taking another bite of his burger.

"No, you can't." Bobby argued.

"You got me. I never been paralyzed. But I tell you something… I've been to hell, and there's an archangel there wanting me to drop the soap. Look at me! My junk's rustier than yours! You hear me bellyaching? Huh?" Dean demanded.

Suddenly his stomach growled angrily.

"Uh, actually, yeah." Sam pointed out.

"Oh!" Dean gasped, holding his stomach as he sat down. "I'm having a heart attack."

Sam and Elena looked on, worried.

"No, you're not." Bobby said, shaking his head.

"What is it?" Dean asked, looking up at him with wide eyes.

"Acid reflux. Guys your age can't digest certain foods. You're gonna need to put down that cheeseburger." Bobby warned him.

Dean obeyed, putting the bacon cheeseburger down with a great reluctance.

"So, you want to keep emoting, or you want to talk about solving this little issue of yours? It's got to be about the chips." Sam suggested.

"I slid 'em across, Patrick did his little witchy number, and you prettied up in a hurry." Dean nodded.

"I mean, what are you all thinking? Some kind of magic chips or something?" Sam questioned, sitting on the bed.

"Definitely." Bobby nodded.

"You remember what he chanted?" Elena asked.

"Yep… every word." Bobby replied.

"All right, then let's find out where he stashes his chips." Sam nodded.

"And steal me fifty. Benjamin Button me back into burger shape. What do you think?" Dean asked her.

"I think you're an idiot." Elena said, glancing between him and Bobby.

"Both of you." she informed them, turning to walk into the bathroom and change.

* * *

Once they found him again, it was easy enough to follow Patrick to an apartment building. Once he left about thirty minutes later, they all walked, or in Bobby's case… rolled, inside. Dean held the door open as Bobby rolled himself inside and they followed. He suddenly stopped and sighed.

"Well, I'm out." he said, gesturing to a sign that informed them that the elevator was out of order.

Elena and Sam walked to the stairs and began jogging up them. They turned to see Dean huffing and puffing a he walked up them. Sam gestured to the sign as he inhaled deeply.

"Why don't you chill here, grandpa?" Elena said with a smirk.

"No, no I can come." Dean wheezed.

Elena and Sam rolled their eyes and turned to walk into the hallway. They were stopped by the presence of a woman.

"What are you doing?" she demanded.

"Aren't you the chick from the bar?" Dean asked as he caught up with them.

"I'm a lot more than that." She threw up a hand and clenched her fist twisting it. Dean doubled over in pain and Elena launched forward without a second thought. She had the witch pinned against the wall instantly. The woman glared at her and Elena could tell that she was trying to use her powers on Elena.

"You're strong." She breathed, her eyes wide.

"Yep." Elena said, throwing her off to the side.

Patrick was suddenly standing there and he caught her. Before she could retaliate, he stopped her.

"It's all right, sweetheart. It's all right. They're harmless." He assured her as Elena backed up to stand by Sam and Dean again.

"You want the chips? Take 'em." He said, tossing them a few chips. "They're just chips, Einsteins. It's showmanship. This may come as a shock, but the magic does not lie in a pile of crappy plywood or in any phony abracadabra. It's in the nine-hundred-year-old witch. You boys want years? Score 'em the old-fashioned way. Texas hold 'em." He shrugged, chewing on another toothpick.

"Fine. Let's do it." Dean said, holding his head up.

Patrick sighed and pulled a card out of his pocket. Elena easily saw that it was the eight of hearts.

"What card am I holding up?" he asked Dean.

They turned to Dean to see him squinting at it.

"That's what I thought. If your eyesight's that bad, what about your memory? I'm not a murderer. You, on the other hand..." Patrick turned to Sam.

"No, Sam." he said, shaking his head.

Elena couldn't help but think that was the only good idea Dean had the entire case.

"What, Sam not much of a player? Okay, well, happy trails, Dean. Enjoy the twilight of your life. Should have taken better care of that ticker, though." Patrick said, turning to walk off. "You're free to go."

Dean and Elena turned to leave but Patrick stopped Sam.

"Oh, but, Sam... your brother's situation… that's punishment enough, but I can't let you leave without a small parting gift." The Irishman said with a smirk before clapping three times.

"What are you doing?" Sam demanded.

"You'll find out soon enough." Patrick said happily.

"Let's get out of here, Sam." Dean said, pulling him towards the stairs.

As they walked out the door with Bobby following them, Sam began shifting uncomfortably and scratched at the inside of his thights. Then he did it more as they approached the Impala. Elena suddenly realized what happened.

"Dude..." Dean said, realizing it as well.

Sam turned to look at them.

"I believe that he-witch gave you the clap." He chuckled.

Sam went stiff before climbing into the Impala with a pissed off face.

* * *

As they walked up to the hotel, they came to an incline and Bobby stopped, huffing out of anger and frustration.

"Little help here?" he snapped.

Sam immediately backed up and began pushing as Elena and Dean walked on either side.

"You know, I still think I should play." Sam threw out there.

"No, no, no. You're not good enough. I'm better. Bobby's way better. We both lost." Dean said as they came to a more level ground and Sam let go of Bobby's wheelchair.

"Exactly." Bobby nodded.

"So, what? So I don't get a say in this anymore?" Sam demanded.

"Sammy, when you get to be our age…" Dean began.

"You're thirty, Dean! Look, I've watched you hustle plenty of poker…"

"Knowing the game is not enough, Sam. It's not about playing the cards." Bobby cut him off.

"It's about playing the other guy. I know that." Sam said.

"Well, hooray for you. All I'm saying is, I played this guy. I know his style. I can take him." Bobby offered.

"No, Bobby. You don't have enough years in the bank." Dean said.

"I got enough." Bobby said.

"No, you'll die if you lose, Bobby." Sam said.

"So what if I do, huh? What exactly am I living for, huh? The damn apocalypse? Watching men die bloody while I sit in this chair, can't take a step to help 'em?" Bobby said.

They stopped and turned him.

"Bobby…" Dean sighed.

"No, no. It's the facts. I'm old... and broke down... and I can't..." he said, shaking his head.

He took a moment to breathe and get his thoughts together.

"I ain't a hunter no more. I'm useless. And if I wasn't such a coward, I'd have stuck a gun in my mouth day I got home from the hospital."

"Bobby!" Elena exclaimed, horrified as she walked to him and knelt in front of his chair.

"You're not a coward. You're not useless. Look at you, you're still saving our asses, aren't you?" she said, gesturing back at the brothers.

"Not very well apparently." He said miserably.

"Bobby, you are not playing again. I'm not letting you do that." she reached out to pat his shoulder. "There's another way out of this. You three are forgetting something very important."

"What's that?" Sam asked as she stood.

"That I happen to have super strength and limited telekenesis." Elena shrugged.

"Yeah I'm sure the he-witch does too." Dean said as they walked into the motel room.

They stopped short when they saw Patrick's female companion, Lia, sitting on the bed and holding up a piece of paper.

"Take it. It'll help you." she urged them.

Bobby rolled closer and took it out of her hand.

"What is this?" he asked gruffly, looking down at it.

"The most powerful reversal spell you've ever laid your eyes on." Lia said, standing up to walk to the door.

"And it reverses what?" Dean asked.

"Patrick's work… all of it." she informed them, turning at the door.

"You… you saying I could be normal again?" Dean stammered.

"You and everyone else he's ever played." She nodded.

"Who's still alive." Elena said, narrowing her eyes at the woman.

"Why the hell should we trust you?" Sam asked.

"Trust me, don't trust me. I don't care. The spell is real." She sighed.

"If it zaps everyone, don't that include your man?" Bobby asked.

"And me, too. I look good for my age." She said with a sad smile.

"Lady, this don't add up for squat. Why would you want that?" Bobby demanded.

"I have my reasons." Lia said, touching a silver locket around her throat before shaking her head.

"Do it quick. We leave town tomorrow." She said before leaving.

* * *

As Sam entered the underground bar, he found Patrick playing an older man. He looked up at Sam as the man pushed away from the table.

"Hesh here is gonna live to see his granddaughter's bat mitzvah. Isn't that right, Hesh?" Patrick said, looking at the man.

Hesh turned to look at Sam and smiled before turning back to Patrick.

"Thanks again, Patrick." He said with a happy grin.

"Shalom, my friend. Shalom." Patrick nodded.

Hesh got up to leave as Patrick shuffled his cards.

"That was nice of you." Sam commented.

"I'm a nice guy. What can I do you for?" he asked, looking up as he continued to shuffle.

Sam sat down and looked him square in the face.

"Deal." He said.

Patrick smirked.

* * *

"Jawbone of a murderer. Great." Dean huffed as he and Elena dug in the grave.

She rolled her eyes as he stuck the shovel in the dirt, breathing hard.

"You know, this really sucks. How do we even know her spell's gonna work?" Dean grumbled.

"We don't. But we ain't got a Plan B. Now, less flappin' and more diggin'." Bobby shot back.

Dean moved tho shovel another scoop when something cracked. Elena turned to him with wide eyes.

"Oh, God!" he moaned.

Elena looked up in time to see Bobby roll his eyes.

"My elbows! I'm all creaky." Dean whined.

"Hurry up, you crybaby." Bobby said.

"Pound it up your ass, Ironsides." Dean shot back.

"One little grave." Bobby scoffed.

"Then you do it." Dean fired back.

"Fine. I'll hop right in."

"Well, least your legs are numb."

"Shut up and dig, Grandpa." Elena said, cutting off their annoying arguing.

"Why don't you tell me to hurry up, Bobby?" she asked, leaning against her shovel as she took a break for a moment.

"Cause you're too pretty to order around." he said with a smirk.

"Aw, thanks Bobby." Elena said with a grin.

"Oh! Now it's my back!" Dean whimpered as he continued to dig.

"Can you straighten up?" Bobby asked.

Dean tested it out.

"Yeah, but a little sympathy wouldn't hurt." He grumbled.

"Butt cheek tingling?" the older hunter questioned.

"Well, that's kind of personal." Dean said, avoiding Elena's amused expression.

"So yeah?" Bobby nodded.

Dean looked up at him with a glare.

"It's sciatica. You'll live. Keep digging." He snapped.

"You know, Bobby, killing you is officially on my bucket list." Dean said grumpily.

* * *

"I like you, Sam. I do. You're smart, and your heart's clearly in the right place." Patrick said as they played.

Sam didn't answer, instead focusing intensly on his cards.

"I can tell a lot about a guy by looking." He said as he threw his toothpick on the table.

"You mean you're psychic." Sam said, looking up at him.

"No. That'd be cheating. I'm talking about good old-fashioned intuition." Patrick said with a smirk.

"Right. Let's just play." Sam said skeptically.

Patrick took a sip of his whiskey.

"We are playing." He shrugged. "Does your big brother know you're here?"

"Bet five." Sam answered, dropping five chips on the pile, taking more away from his own dwindling stack.

"Didn't think so." Patrick nodded, calling his bet and raising another five.

"I raise. Here you are, right? Trying to clean up their mess, and they still want to sit you at the kiddie table." He said, shaking his head. "You're not the little brother anymore, Sam."

Sam looked up at him with a blank look.

"Then again, maybe you are. You're in over your head here, Sam. I mean, you can keep making these moves… you know, playing it cautious, playing the percentages. But I'm still gonna kick your ass into the nursing home." Patrick said with a smirk.

"Does this armchair-psychology routine usually work for you?" Sam snapped.

Patrick laughed, shaking his head.

"You tell me. You're the one who's losing." He shrugged, gesturing to Sam's pile.

Patrick chewed on his toothpick as they continued their game. A few minutes later, when Sam was down to twenty chips, Lia came in and kissed Patrick. The Irishman looked over at Sam and winked.

"Little break?" he asked.

* * *

Elena looked up as Sam walked out of the elevator and up to her.

"How's it going in there?" she asked, holding her hand out.

"How do you think it's going?" he scoffed.

"Well this is why I said this was a bad idea." She shot back.

He shook his head.

"What about you? You have everything you need?" he asked.

"We still need a little DNA." She said, holding her hand out.

"He was chewing it." Sam said, handing her a toothpick.

"Hurry up, Elena. Please." He said desperately.

"All right. Just keep him busy. And, Sam... don't lose." Elena said pleadingly, turning to walk off.

* * *

"Question." Patrick said after they'd been playing for another ten minutes. "Is this what you meant to give that little girl of yours?"

He held up a toothpick. Sam didn't let his expression change as Lia flicked a glance at the toothpick.

"The one you gave him never passed my lips. Won't do a scrap of good." Patrick said, throwing the small piece of wood across the table.

"I don't like cheating, Sam." he said, stretching out his hand and clenching his fist.

Sam stiffened, gasping for breath, as Lia watched. A hand flew to his throat as he fought for air.

"Stop it!" Lia exclaimed, grabbing Patrick's wrist. "Patrick, let him go!"

"He tried to kill us!" Patrick snapped.

"I did it! I gave him the spell!" she said.

Patrick released the spell and turned to her, shocked.

"What?" he breathed, standing up to touch Lia's face.

"Why... why would you do that?" he sighed.

"You know why." She said, touching her silver locket again.

Patrick looked away for a moment before sitting down.

"Keep. Playing." He snapped.

Sam glanced up at Lia as she looked away.

* * *

"I don't get it. Everything we put in that spell was kosher." Bobby said as Elena drove them down the road towards the apartment building.

"Yeah, everything except the damn toothpick." Dean snapped.

"You got to go get a speck of DNA. Strap on your track shoes." Bobby said.

"Oh, goody. More stairs." Dean said.

Dean remained on the phone as they searched around Patrick and Lia's apartment.

"It's too damn clean in here. First witch I ever heard of didn't spew bodily fluids all over the place." he growled, searching the couch cushions as Elena looked around the kitchen.

"Toothbrush, comb… anything." She heard Bobby said desperately.

* * *

"Well, look at you—the percentage player betting the farm. Awful transparent of you, Sam. I mean, if I had a monster hand like you have, I'd trap you. But you get so excited, you bet yourself right out of a big pot." Patrick said as he watched Sam stack up five more chips.

He sniffed and picked up his cards.

"I fold." He announced, discarding them.

"Set of ladies, I'm guessing." He said.

Sam collected the chips and turned over his cards, three of clubs and five of diamonds.

"Nice bluff. If we had time, I could make a real player out of you." Patrick nodded.

"I got time." Sam deadpanned.

Patrick grinned. "Maybe. But I can't say the same for Dean. Your brother's gonna be dead soon."

Sam looked up at him.

"And when I say soon..." he leaned forward. "… I mean minutes."

Sam expression turned fearful and he stood up quickly. Patrick extended a fist and yanked him back to sitting down with witchcraft.

"The game's not over till I say it is. Blinds." He growled angrily.

* * *

Elena walked out of the bathroom just in time to see Dean put a hand over his heart and crumple to the ground.

"Sam..." he said weakly.

"Dean!" she cried, running to him.

He slumped in her arms, groaning painfully.

* * *

"So." Patrick said, slapping down three cards and spreading them out.

He had the ace of spades and fours of hearts and clubs. Sam eyed the cards but didn't betray any emotion.

"When it's about your brother, you get so emotional, your brain just flies right out the window." He said, illustrating with a hand gesture.

"Good to know." He shrugged.

"Go to hell." Sam snapped, shoving all of his chips into the middle. "I'm all in."

Lia glanced at him as Patrick sighed, checking his cards.

"Don't do that, Sam." he said pleadingly.

"I can't leave until it's over? Fine. It's over. Now, where's my brother?" Sam demanded.

"Look, there's poker and then there's suicide." Patrick said.

"Just play the hand." Sam fired back.

* * *

"Dean? Dean, you there?" Elena heard Bobby saying over the phone as she attempted to heal Dean of whatever was happening.

Whatever it was wasn't healable. It was natural and apparently she couldn't heal old age. Tears streamed down her face as he groaned in her arms.

* * *

Patrick added all of his chips to the pot.

"Fine." He sighed, discarding a card.

They stared each other down, Sam worried and Patrick smug.

* * *

Elena let out a cry of panic as Dean grew still in her arms.

"No!" she screamed, putting her hands on his chest and concentrating in full.

Warmth finally flowed through her hands and she felt it flowing out into his body. For the first time ever, a white light filled the room as she did so.

* * *

"I'm sorry, kid. Aces full." Patrick said, turning over his cards.

Sam looked down at his cards then looked up at Lia.

"You're crying." Sam said to the woman.

She looked away as Sam and Patrick watched her.

"For a witch, you're so nice, it's actually kind of creepy. It's okay." He sighed, looking back at Patrick. "It was a great hand."

Patrick moved to collect the chips, knowing that only very few hands could beat his full house with three aces.

"Just…" Sam stopped him.

Patrick looked up.

"… not as great as…"

He turned over his cards to reveal four of a kind.

"… as four fours." He said.

Patrick glanced up at Sam and down at the cards. Sam took a deep breath and let it out slowly.

Patrick leaned back, looking impressed.

"Well played. You know, that whole... going-out-of-your-head bit… very method." He nodded.

Sam smirked.

"Well, there's more to you than meets the eye." Patrick said, raising his glass in a salute.

"Cash these in for Dean, please." Sam said, pushing the coins towards him.

Patrick nodded, setting down the glass.

"With pleasure." He nodded.

* * *

Elena looked down with shock as the white light cut off and Dean woke up underneath her, young again. She stared at him in shock, his green eyes looking back up at her. Suddenly he was sitting up and yanking her to him.

"I'm young again." He said.

"Yes." She nodded, trying to wipe the tears away.

"Hey, what's wrong?" he whispered, alarmed.

"You died. In my arms. You died." She wailed.

"I'm fine." He said, laughing as he pulled her in.

She shook her head and embraced him tightly. Suddenly he pulled away and looked at her.

"I'm young again." He said, smirking.

Elena barely had time to react before he was kissing her much like he had against the bar door. She responded in kind, straddling his waist as she ran her fingers through his hair.

"We should go out there so that Bobby knows you're alive." She whispered.

"Ugh." Dean groaned as she pulled them up.

"I'll get you a bacon cheeseburger." She assured him.

They walked out of the apartment building and Dean did a little dance for Bobby to show the older hunter that he was young again.

* * *

"I can't do this, Lia." Patrick sighed, shaking his head.

"Yes, you can." She replied as she sat down at the table.

"Don't make me. I don't want to win." He refused.

Lia opened her locket to reveal two pictures.

"I buried my daughter." She said sadly. "And she looked like this." Lia pointed to the picture of an elderly woman.

"It's not natural." She sighed, shaking her head as she closed her locket.

"You knew. When you decided to come with me." Patrick said, tears in his eyes. "This is what you wanted. You're still young. You're so beautiful. You have me."

"I miss my family. I'm sorry, Patrick." She said, looking down.

"I thought you loved me."

"I do. Sweetheart, of course I do. I thought I was cut out for this, but I'm not." She said, taking his hand.

"I don't think I can do this without you." he admitted.

"You got on okay for a long time before you met me." Lia said with a soft smile.

"Check." He sighed after a moment.

Lia pushed her stacks of poker chips to the middle.

"All in." she said.

After a long pause, Patrick did the same thing.

"All in."

It wasn't any surprise that he won. Both of them were expecting in.

"Thank you." Lia sighed as she rapidly aged in front of him.

* * *

"No tricks… you actually beat the guy?" Bobby asked as they stood outside the motel.

Sam grinned and spread his arms.

"How the hell?" Bobby asked.

"Just lucky." He shrugged, heading for the door.

"I wouldn't!" Bobby said, stopping him.

"Why?" Sam asked.

"I think they're celebrating Dean's newfound youth." He said, rolling his eyes just as they heard a muffled moan from in the door.

Sam rolled his eyes.

"Fine, I'll see you later." He said, turning to walk off.

"Where you going?" Bobby asked.

"Uh... mm, nowhere."

The older hunter just stared at him.

"A booster shot. Don't say it." Sam snapped.

"Well, I guess I'll wait here." Bobby sighed, looking at the door.

* * *

"Oh my God! You are… fucking amazing!" Dean said, throwing his head back and shuddering in pleasure.

Elena giggled, reaching out to wipe some sauce off of the corner of his mouth.

"Only because I let you get two bacon cheeseburgers." She said.

"Nah, that's just one of many reasons." He said, running his hand up her bare leg.

They'd enjoyed the pleasures that his re-found youth brought and now they were curled up in the bed, Elena wearing Dean's t-shirt and nothing else and Dean wearing boxers and nothing else, eating cheeseburgers.

"I like you better when you're not a grumpy old man." Elena informed him, leaning forward to kiss him as he took another bite of burger.

"Only cause I can keep up with you now." He said, flipping her over and kissing her deeply as he held the cheeseburger high in the air so it wouldn't get damaged.

She laughed and shook her head.

* * *

"I shouldn't have called you an idiot." Dean said as they packed up the Impala.

"Which time?" Bobby grumbled.

"I'm sorry. I mean, I actually… I, I… I get it. Getting old ain't a bachelor party. And dealing with the crap you got to deal with…" Dean stammered as Elena and Sam stood a little ways away.

"Don't you go on pity patrol." Bobby snapped.

"I'm not. I'm not. I'm just... I'm saying, you know, if I was in your shoes..." Dean said.

"You'd never stop complaining." The older hunter scoffed, rolling his eyes.

"Fair enough. You're not useless, Bobby." Dean said.

"Okay. Good talk." He said, turning to roll away.

Dean stepped into his path.

"No, wait a minute. Listen to me." he sighed. "You don't stop being a soldier 'cause you got wounded in battle. Okay? No matter what shape you're in, bottom line is, you're family. I don't know if you've noticed, but me and Sam, we don't have much left. I can't do this without you. I can't. So don't you dare think about checking out. I don't want to hear that again." He snapped.

There was a long silence.

"Okay." Bobby nodded.

"Okay. Good." Dean nodded as well.

"Thanks. Now, we done feeling our feelings? 'Cause I'd like to get out of this town before we both start growing lady parts." Bobby snapped.

"Yeah, we're done." Dean nodded. "Let's go, Ironsides." He said, patting the van that Bobby was in.

"Oh, that one's sticking, huh?" Bobby asked as Elena and Sam walked up to them.

Dean simply grinned and shrugged.

* * *

**Author's Note: Please review! Elena's outfits are on my profile.**

**I posted the Bonnie & Clyde story! It's called Renegade! Please go check it out and tell me what you think!**


	8. Chapter 8

**Disclaimer: I do not own TVD or Supernatural**

**Thanks to DrawingMyHeartOut, Hollywood17, diehardromantic, Nyssandria, TheElegantFaerie, slayerdiaries, Dark-Supernatural-Angel, SeargantPixie, xxPaige23xx, RHatch89, Dark Alana, DamonSalvatorelover789, MaddAlice, neontreeslover, and LineChokor for reviewing!**

**SeargantPixie, I can't tell if you're serious but please don't stop reading. :(**

**A few things:**

**1. I tried to make this chapter light-hearted. I hope it worked.**

**2. The next chapter is going to be partly serious, partly happy.**

**3. For those of you who are reading it, the updates for Renegade aren't going to come nearly as quickly as the updates for this usually do simply because this is my priority. So I hope you don't hate me for that.**

**4. I've had this chapter done for a few hours but my Internet isn't working all that well. I'm sorry if that affects me later on as well.**

**5. We made it to 100 reviews! Tell me what's on your mind. Anything you want to see or any relationship pairings (especially for Sam), let me know in your review! I want to hear what you want to read!.**

**6. Enjoy!**

* * *

**Music:**

**Gimme All Your Lovin' - ZZ Top (cleaning scene)**

* * *

"Really? Nothing?" Dean said, leaning over Bobby's desk.

"Nothing ya idjit. Now back off." Bobby said, pushing him away.

Elena sat on the couch with her head on Sam's shoulder as he read a book.

"We haven't had a case in over a week. There isn't anything weird going on? No signs of the apocalypse or anything?" Dean sighed, walking away from the desk with frustration and worry all over his face.

"No!" Bobby snapped.

Elena rolled her eyes at Dean's impatience but she was worried too. They were conditioned into thinking that when it was quiet, it was bad. Castiel was still out on his hunt for God and she hadn't seen Gabriel since he helped her out of jail. Her senses told her that there was something big coming and she thought that she knew exactly what that big thing was. She had a month left. A month until Zachariah's offer was up. Dean and Sam still didn't know about the threat that hung over her head. Elena felt more and more, every day, that her time with the Winchester brothers was running out.

It was affecting her. She would lie in bed for hours in the motel room staring at Dean as he slept, trying to commit his face to memory. Sometimes she would even watch Sam, unsure of whether she would ever be able to talk to her (for all intents and purposes) adoptive big brother ever again. She would put on a good act when they were awake. If there was anything she'd learned, it was to be a good actress. Now, with one month left, she committed herself to making the most of that month. She was going to make sure that every moment that she had left with the brothers was good. She also wanted to make sure that they could depend on each other if she was truly taken away from them. If they didn't have her, they needed to be able to depend on each other for someone to lean on, even if they would never admit it. So she was working her ass off on getting their relationship as good as she could get it.

Elena sighed and sat up, looking around Bobby's house that had become filthy again in her extended absence.

"If you really want something to do, you can help me." she decided, turning to walk to the kitchen where she stored all of the cleaning supplies that she left behind.

"Help you what?" Dean asked warily as he walked in behind her.

"Go put on your ratty clothing. We're gonna clean this place." she said, setting the supplies in the middle of the kitchen.

"I don't clean." Dean said, shaking his head as he backed away from her with his hands up defensively.

Elena narrowed her eyes at him.

"Me, super strong guardian. You, human who is, as of now, my bitch. Go get dressed." Elena said, pointing at the stairs.

He glared at her but she shook her head and grabbed his hand, dragging him up the stairs. She could hear Sam laughing and she stopped short.

"You too, Sam!" she announced and his laughter quickly ended.

She caught sight of Dean's satisfied smirk out of the corner of her eye as they walked up the rest of the way.

"Why do we have to clean?" Dean demanded as he stood in the middle of the room and she sorted through her clothing.

"Because it will help Bobby." Elena shot back, turning to look at him expectantly.

"That's not fair." He accused her.

She walked to him and slid his flannel shirt off of his shoulders, looking up at him.

"Please?" she requested, her eyes pleading.

Dean sighed.

"You know I can't say no when you have that face." he said.

"I know." She said, smiling as she pulled his t-shirt over his head and pushing him back to the bed.

"What happened to cleaning?" He asked, grinning as he was satisfied with what the situation had turned into.

Elena simply grinned and walked to the bed, pulling off her own shirt and sliding up his body to press a kiss just over his navel. He sighed and his head fell back as she peppered wet, open-mouthed kisses all over his torso, her hands exploring it as well.

"This…" she breathed, pulling him up to a sitting position as she settled on his lap. "… is a preview as to what you will get if you help me clean."

He groaned as her lips pressed to his softly before she slid off of his lap.

"That's… not nice." Dean complained as he watched her pull her pants off and quickly change into clothing that was appropriate for cleaning.

"I'll be nice later." Elena said with a wink.

Once they got downstairs, Sam was waiting with a scowl and ratty clothing on.

"Bobby, you mind if we clean around you?" Elena asked as she walked to the radio that was set up in the dining room.

"Nah this place could use a…" he was cut off by loud music drowning him out.

Elena turned to grin at them and quickly changed the station. A grin grew on Dean's face. Sam shook his head as Elena walked to the cleaning supplies and began handing them out, yelling their duties over the music. They started on the kitchen, Elena dancing around shamelessly to the rock music blaring out of the speakers. Bobby stared them with an unamused expression, rolling his eyes when Dean began to (attempt) to sing along.

"I got to have a shot… of what you got it's oh so sweet!" the older Winchester brother sang as Elena danced around the kitchen.

"You got to make it hot… like a boomerang I need a repeat!" She sang back, grinning at him.

Sam shook his head as he wiped down the table but he couldn't help but smile at them. It almost felt like before everything happened. Elena threw down her rag and ran up to Dean, laughing when he dropped his broom and caught her, twirling her around.

"Gimme all your lovin'! All your hugs and kisses too!" they shouted together, laughing as they sang dramatically.

Even Bobby couldn't hide his smile at the glee on their faces. Dean put Elena down and she didn't waste a second before skipping over to Sam, holding out her hands.

"Dance with me?" she asked.

"That isn't cleaning." He reminded her.

She barely had to push her lower lip out before he was taking her hand and twirling her around, much to her delight.

"You got to whip it up… and hit me like a ton of lead!" Sam sang before he could help it and Elena grinned up at him as they danced around the kitchen.

"Gimme all your lovin'! All your hugs and kisses too!" She sang as she twirled right into Dean's arms.

"Gimme all your lovin'! Don't let up until you do!" Dean sang back, whirling her around to gather in his arms and lift her off the ground, whirling them around as her laughter filled the house, making the other three smile widely.

It was moments like this that the three hunters were most grateful to have Elena in their lives. Because beyond the apocalypse and demons and every other bad thing out there, she could give them these moments. She could make them laugh and forget that the world was a horrible place sometimes. Suddenly Sam's phone chirped on the table and they all stopped, looking back at it as their smiles fell. Then the world chose to remind them that it was still there and waiting to destroy their good moments.

* * *

"Jesus!" Elena complained as they squealed around the corner and into the parking lot of the Pineview Hotel.

She peeled herself away from the window where she'd slammed into it on the sharp turn and Dean looked back at her sympathetically.

"Sorry. But we were told to hurry." He shrugged.

"Yeah, but not at the expense of Elena's head." She grumbled, quickly healing herself of the throbbing headache she had now.

Dean stopped short in a parking spot and they all jumped out, Sam in the lead as they ran through the parking lot. Elena and Dean stopped short when they caught sight of three other black Impalas parked in the parking lot. They shared a confused look. As they ran up to the hotel, they quickly caught sight of a familiar face. He was pacing and looked extremely nervous but that was normal for the prophet.

"Chuck! There you are." Sam sighed as they ran up to him.

"Guys?" he said, his surprise making Elena suspicious of what was really going on.

"What's going on?" Dean questioned as they stood around him, staring at him expectantly.

"Ah, nothing. You know, I'm just kinda hanging. What are you guys doing here?" he asked, looking completely confused.

"You told us to come." Dean said as if it was obvious.

"Ah, no I didn't." Chuck said, staring at the three of them with a panicked expression.

"Yeah you did, you texted me. This address, life or death situation. Any of this ringing a bell?" Sam demanded, staring him down with a hint of frustration in his voice.

"I didn't send you a text." Chuck denied vehemntly.

Elena looked around, wondering exactly what was going on. Why was Chuck at a random hotel?

"We drove all night!" Dean snapped.

"I'm sorry, I don't understand what could... oh no." he said, his eyes widening.

"What?" Elena said, wondering what he just realized.

"Sam! You made it!" They heard a female voice squeal.

They turned to see the girl that had brought them Chuck's prophecy about the Michael sword standing at the top of the stairs with a wide-eyed and thrilled look on her face. She ran down to stand in front of Sam, doing what Elena could only describe as an 'I need to pee' dance.

"Oh, ah, Becky, right?" Sam asked, wary of her as he remembered the way she'd refused to stop touching him the last time they met her.

"Oh, you remembered." She sighed dreamily.

"You been thinking about me." Becky said in a lower voice.

"I..." Sam began, looking at Dean and Elena for help.

Both of them shook their head and stepped away, refusing to take part in this situation.

"It's ok, I can't get you out of my head either." She said with a creepy grin.

"Becky, did you take my phone?" Chuck demanded.

"I just borrowed it from your pants." She shrugged carelessly before turning her attention back on the younger Winchester.

"Becky..." Chuck sighed, shaking his head.

"What? They're going to want to see it!" Becky exclaimed, doing the same dance again.

"See what?" Sam and Dean asked at the same time.

"Oh My God. I love it when they talk at the same time!" she squealed.

Then her attention focused on Elena.

"Oh it is so good to see you! Especially when I know who you are now! Dean and Sam's guardian! It's so poetic! Especially since you and Dean are… well you know." She said, taking Elena by surprise.

They turned to look at Chuck but were interrupted by asking what the hell was going on when a guy appeared with a clipboard at the top of the stairs leading into the hotel.

"Hey Chuck? Come on pal, it's showtime." He said.

Becky let out a screech of happiness and turned to run up the stairs.

"I'm sorry. For everything." Chuck said to them before turning to walk up the stairs.

They looked at each other, all confused, before following him in.

* * *

As they walked in, Elena immediately realized what was happening. Especially when she saw a girl with hair that matched hers perfectly and she was holding hands with a guy who was dressed like Dean. Unfortunately, the brothers were slower on the uptake.

A large man walked past them with a beer in his hand and stopped, looking Dean up and down.

"Ha-ha-ha. Hey Dean, looking good." He said, patting his shoulder before walking past.

"Who the hell are you?" Dean demanded, wanting to know how this man knew who he was.

"I'm Dean too. Duh." He scoffed before turning to walk away.

Dean turned to Sam, looking utterly confused. They caught sight of a demented scarecrow and Dean jumped, causing Sam to turn and do the same.

"Uh-oh. It's Sam and Dean. I'm in trouble now." The scarecrow said as he passed.

"Have fun you two. Aaaah!" he yelled, gesturing towards Sam with the scythe he was carrying before turning to walk off.

Sam glared at the man dressed up before turning to Dean. Becky giggled from where she was standing behind them.

"What?" Dean whispered, astounded.

"Becky… what is this?" Sam demanded as they caught sight of a man with yellow contacts that matched the yellow-eyed demon's eyes perfectly.

"It's awesome! A Supernatural convention, the first ever." Becky said, clapping her hands.

They turned to stare at each other, unsure of exactly what she was saying. Elena felt a tap on her shoulder and turned to see the girl standing there that she thought had her hair.

"My Elena outfit is much better than yours." She informed her, making Elena's eyes widen even further.

"Your… what?" she said, looking at the girl's slutty clothing.

"Your costume. It's pathetic. Where did you get it?" the girl asked, her high-pitched voice and words already annoying to Elena.

"I don't know. When I went shopping." Elena said, uncomfortable with the situation.

"Where did you get your wig?" the girl asked, reaching out and tugging on Elena's hair.

"Ow!" Elena complained, slapping her hand away.

"It's not a wig! God I wish I thought of dye-ing my hair!" she complained, looking unhappy.

"What the hell are you talking about?" Elena demanded, irritated now.

"God, the least you can do is stay in character. Elena isn't such a bitch. I'm better than you even if I am wearing a wig." The girl said, rolling her eyes.

Elena stared at her with a stunned expression as Dean and Sam fought back their laughter. The girl turned to look at them.

"Well at least you have a good Dean and Sam. But I have a Castiel." The fake Elena said, gesturing to a pudgy man that walked up wearing a tan overcoat.

He looked nothing like Castiel and Elena was getting more and more freaked out.

"So while you get to act out the hot sex scenes with just the brothers, I get to have all three." The slutty girl said, winking at her.

"Oh God, what?" Elena choked out as Dean's expression went from amused to no longer happy.

"Oh come on. Like everyone doesn't know what Elena does with Castiel when they're alone." The girl rolled her eyes again. "No two people have that much chemistry without doing it."

Elena was truly traumatized by now, unable to believe that this girl was suggesting that she was having sex with Cas. She turned to glare at Sam, who was turning red with embarrassment, and Dean, who was pissed, before dragging them into the auditorium. She was slowly beginning to figure out what was going on and she was going to have a few words with Chuck about it.

"Welcome to the first annual Supernatural convention." The man with the clipboard announced, making everyone cheer.

"At 3.45 in the Magnolia room we have the panel, Frightened little boy, the secret life of Dean. And at 4.30 there's the Homoerotic subtext of Supernatural." Elena looked between Sam and Dean, who all of the sudden looked traumatized.

"Oh, and of course the big hunt starts at 7pm sharp." More cheers and applause filled the room.

"But right now, right now I'd like to introduce the man himself. The creator, the writer of the supernatural books. The one, the only, Carver Edlund!" he said, walked off of the stage as Chuck walked on timidly.

His eyes flickered to them, taking in their not-too-happy looks and gulping.

"Ok. Ok good, this isn't nearly as awkward as I…" Chuck trailed off, clearing his throat.

"Dry mouth." He said, grabbing a bottle of water off of a table behind him.

There was total silence in the room as he drank quickly.

"Ok. Uh... ahem. So I guess... questions?" he said hoarsely.

Every hand in the room shot up and Chuck looked startled.

"Uh... you?" he said questioningly, pointing at a man in the front row who was dressed as Sam.

"Hey, Mr Edlund. Uh... big fan. I was just wondering, where'd you come up with Sam and Dean in the first place?" the man asked, grinning.

Chuck's eyes flickered to them again and Dean and Sam cocked their heads to the side, interested to hear his answer to that question.

"Oh, ah, I... it just came to me." he stammered.

Sam scoffed quietly as Dean pursed his lips and titled his head back. Hands shot into the air once again and Elena glared up at Chuck.

"Ok. Yeah. The hook man." Chuck said, pointing to the man.

"Ah yeah. Why in every fight scene, Sam and Dean are having their gun knocked away by the bad guy? Why don't they keep it on some kind of bungee?" the next man asked with a heavy accent.

"I... yeah, I really don't know." Chuck said, confused by the answer as Dean shifted beside Elena, obviously getting more and more pissed off.

"Ja, follow up. You leave last book off with Sam beating Dean up and going to kill Lilith. Why can't Sam be telling that Ruby is evil? I mean she is clearly manipulating Sam into some kind of moral lapse. It's obvious, nien?" he asked, scoffing.

They all looked pissed now and Chuck looked down at his feet because he knew exactly why. As far as they knew, his last book ended with Dean going to hell. Elena gritted her teeth as she realized that she must have been in Chuck's books now and that was why there was a slutty woman pathetically dressed like her.

Becky stomped up the aisle, glaring at the man who asked the question.

"Hey! If you don't like the books don't read em Fritz." She hissed.

"Ok, Ok, just..okay, it's okay. So… next question." Chuck stammered nervously, unable to ignore the glares that Sam, Dean, and Elena were sending to him.

"Yeah… you." he said, pointing at a girl this time.

"Yeah, at the end of the last book, Dean and Elena have sex. What's going to happen between them next?"

Elena's hand shot out and grasped Dean's, making him grunt painfully.

"I'm going to kill him." she growled softly as Dean tried to slide his hand out of her grip.

"As long as you don't kill my hand first." He said pleadingly, as pissed as her but unable to show it as he was pretty sure she was crushing his hand.

She loosened her grip and quickly healed the few bones that she'd cracked in the process of accidentally taking her anger out on him.

"Oh. Well there lies an announcement, actually. You're all going to find out." Chuck said as they glared at him.

"Thanks to a wealthy Scandinavian investor, as you well know since we've published one new book so far… we're going to start publishing regularly again." he said.

The room suddenly erupted, everyone jumping out of their seats to cheer happily. Elena's eyes narrowed at Chuck as he looked around nervously.

* * *

Elena stomped up to the table where Chuck and Becky were sitting, uncaring of his pathetic attempt to ask the googly eyed fan on a date. Sam and Dean were following her closely.

"Oh, Hi Sam!" Becky exclaimed as they reached the table.

Sam nodded at Becky distractedly as Elena squatted next to Chuck.

"Excuse us." Dean said to Becky, leaning over the other side of Chuck's chair that Elena wasn't at.

Chuck looked very scared to have them on either side of him with fury blazing in their eyes.

"In case you haven't noticed, our plates are kind of full, ok? Finding the Colt, hunting the devil. We don't have time for this crap." Dean growled.

"Hey, I didn't call you!" Chuck protested.

"He means the books, Chuck. Why are you publishing more books?" Sam demanded.

"And why am I in them?" Elena snapped.

"Um... for food and shelter?" Chuck said in a small voice.

"Who gave you the rights to our life story?" Dean murmured, keeping it down.

"An archangel, and I didn't want it!" Chuck argued.

"Well, deal's off, ok. No more books. Our lives are not for public consumption." Sam said, glancing at Becky weirdly as she kept giving him come hither looks.

"Ah… Becky. Would you excuse us for just a second?" Chuck asked.

"Uh-huh!" she nodded quickly.

As soon as they were alone in a room, Elena slammed Chuck against the wall and held her arm against his throat, not quite choking him but close enough so that he could.

"Elena!" Dean protested, trying to pull her away from him to no avail.

"What have you published about me, Chuck?" she demanded.

"Not much! I promise!" he said, struggling against her hold.

"Really? Because those people out there sure seem to know quite a bit about my sex life." Elena snapped, pushing her arm against his throat.

"I kept you mysterious for a reason! It brings more mystery to the story." He choked out.

"What did you write about my family? And my friends? Did you write anything that could put them in danger?" she demanded.

She felt violated because of the sex thing but she would be murderous if he put her brother in danger.

"No! Like I said, you're the mysterious guardian." He assured her, his eyes wide.

Elena finally pulled away from him and let go, backing away and shaking her head.

"You had no right." she said, pointing at him as Dean took her hand comfortingly.

"Do you guys know what I do for a living?" Chuck said hoarsely, looking around at them with wide eyes.

"Yeah Chuck, we know." Sam snapped.

"Then could you tell me? Cause I don't, all right? I'm not a good writer. I've got no marketable skills. I'm not some hero who can just hit the road and fight monsters, Ok? Until the world ends, I gotta live, all right? And the Supernatural books are all I've got. What else do you want me to do?" He said desperately.

Suddenly a woman screamed and distracted them from their interrogation of the prophet. Sam and Dean stared at Chuck for a minute before taking off towards the sound with Elena hot on their heels.

"No, guys...wait!" Chuck yelled after them.

* * *

Elena hung back as she watched Sam and Dean run up the stairs with several other convention people following them.

"Hey, are you ok?" Sam asked as he helped a maid up.

"I think so." she said, sounding confused.

"What happened?" Dean asked, slipping into hunter mode.

"I saw a ghost." She whimpered.

"A ghost? Could you tell us what it looked like?" One of the convention guys asked in a deep voice that Elena had a feelign was meant to be Dean.

"Why don't you leave this to the grownups pal?" Dean snapped.

"A woman. She was in an old fashioned dress. Really old. Like a school marm, or something?" the maid explained.

"Did she say something to you?" Another man asked.

Suddenly the maid's voice slipped into a dramatic tone.

"Gather close everybody, for a terrifying tale of terror. I saw, a ghost!" she proclaimed.

Elena rolled her eyes as the brothers walked back down the stairs.

"None other than the ghost of Leticia Gore herself! I was on the third floor getting ice for a guest..." Elena blocked the maid out as she turned to them with an exasperated expression.

"Oooo, the LARPing's started." Becky exclaimed as she ran up to them.

"The... what is that again?" Dean asked.

"Live Action Role Playing? It's a game. The convention puts it on." Becky explained, handing Sam a piece of paper with loving eyes.

"Dad's Journal. Dear Sam and Dean, this hotel is haunted. You must hunt down the ghost. Interview witnesses, discover clues, and find the bones. First team to do so wins a $50 gift card to Sizzler. Love Dad." He read off of the paper.

Dean and Sam both frowned down at the paper as Elena rolled her eyes once again.

"You guys are soooo gonna win." Becky said with a grin.

* * *

Thirty minutes later, men and women all dressed in black suits were crowded in the lobby surrounding the man with the clipboard.

"Well yes Agents Lennon and McCartney, as manager of this fine establishment I can assure you that it is indeed haunted. This building was once an orphanage, run by mean old Leticia Gore. 100 years ago this very night, Miss Gore went insane, and butchered four little boys before killing herself. Now folks say that the souls of those poor little boys are trapped here and the evil spirit of Miss Gore punishes them to this very day." He said dramatically.

"Well that's just about all the community theatre I can take." Dean snapped as they watched the dramatics.

"Yeah, this cannot get any weirder." Sam scoffed.

Two men walked by, one of them being the overweight Dean that they saw earlier.

"Dad said... he said I may have to kill you." the fake Dean said, trying to be serious but utterly failing.

"Kill me? What the hell does that mean?" the fake Sam asked.

Elena stared at them with a raised eyebrow.

"I don't know." Fake Dean replied.

"Oh..." Fake Sam replied.

They turned and continued to walk off.

Sam and Dean looked at Elena before looking at each other.

"I need a drink." They said in unison.

* * *

Elena stared at her beer along with Sam as Dean downed a shot of whiskey.

"For the last time I'm not making this up, ok? She's upstairs, a real live dead ghost." A voice cut through their thoughts, causing them to turn to see a man with blood running down his face talking desperately to his face.

Dean immediately got up and walked over, Sam and Elena following him.

"I'm sure it was just one of the ghost actors." The man's friend said.

"Who beat the hell out of me and then vanished?" the injured man demanded.

"You saw something?" Sam asked.

"This isn't part of the game jerk." He snapped before turning back to his friend. "Look, I'm getting out of here and you should do the same."

He turned to walk off with them watching.

"Alex, wait. Hey, come back." the other guy yelled, following him.

"What do you think?" Sam asked, turning to them.

"I don't think that guy's a good enough an actor to be acting." Dean said with a frown.

* * *

"Why yes agents Jagger and Richards. As manager of this fine establishment I can assure you it is indeed haunted." They heard the man with the clipboard giving his speech once again.

A scowl took over Elena's face as they approached the desk of the hotel. She wanted nothing more than to get out of there but it looked like there might have been an actual haunting now.

"Excuse us, mind if we ask you a few questions?" Dean asked the actual manager of the hotel.

"Look, I don't have time to play Star Wars guys. Go ask the guy in the ascot." The man scoffed.

Dean reached in his pocket and pulled out a wad of bills, sliding a $50 across the counter.

"Actually we ah... really want to talk to you." he sighed.

"Okay. You guys are really into this." the manager said, taking the bill off of the counter quickly.

"You have no idea." Sam sighed.

"What do you want to know?"

"All this stuff they're saying. This place being haunted. Leticia Gore. Any truth to it?" Dean questioned.

"We generally don't like to publicise this to... normal people... but yeah. 1909 this place was called Gore Orphanage. Miss Gore, killed four boys with a butchers knife, then offed herself." he explained.

"And is tonight really her anniversary?" Elena asked.

The man's eyes flickered to her and he looked surprised to see her standing there.

"Yep, guess your convention folks want authenticity." He nodded.

"There been any sightings?" Sam asked.

"Yep, over the years. A few maids have quit saying they heard the boys or saw them. A janitor even saw Miss Gore once." The manager informed them.

"Where did Miss Gore carve up the kids?" Dean asked.

The manager balked, shaking his head.

"Look, I don't want you stomping all over the joint. A lot of this place is off limits to nerds." He said.

Dean slid another $50 across the table.

"The attic." He whispered.

Elena turned to see the same fake Sam and Dean that she'd been seeing everywhere standing behind them. They caught sight of her and, when she narrowed her eyes at them, turned to scurry off.

"You two go up. I'm gonna keep an eye on those guys. They were listening in on us and I have a feeling that they might get themselves into trouble." Elena said, suspicous of the men.

"All right." Sam and Dean said, turning to walk to the attic.

* * *

Sam was holding the EMF as they walked through the attic with flashlights. The device suddenly started buzzing like crazy.

"The EMF's going nuts." Sam said, looking up.

"Great. We got a real ghost, and we got a bunch of dudes pretending to be us poking at it." Dean scoffed, glaring around at the attic.

"No way this ends well." Sam nodded.

"Yeah well serves them right." the older brother sighed.

"Dean..." Sam began to berate him.

"I'm just saying." Dean defended himself as they continued looking.

* * *

"It's gotta be around here someplace." The fake Dean, who Elena figured out was Damien, said as they walked down the hallway on the very top floor that was just below the attic.

Elena was creeping behind them silently, her heels in her hands so that she would make no noise. It was hard with the creaky floorboards.

"Yeah I dunno man. No one else is looking for the attic." Fake Sam, or Barnes, said in a normal voice.

"Ok, all right, dude. 1. Stay in character. All right? If it's just me, I look stupid. and 2. You heard the guy downstairs. I think this is part of the game." Damien said.

"Help us." Elena's head snapped back as she stepped back into the shadows and she saw a little boy standing there.

"Oh my God! That make up is amazing." Barnes exclaimed.

"Amateur. Stay in character!" Damien snapped as they walked forward.

"Sorry." Barnes said in a deeper voice.

"Help us. Miss Gore won't let us have any fun." The little boy said.

Elena cursed quietly. She had her handgun tucked into her jacket with iron bullets in case she needed it but the salt rounds and shotguns were in the car.

"Where's the body buried kid? We'll light her up nice and toasty." Damien offered.

Elena rolled her eyes at his cluelessness. How could they possibly think this wasn't a ghost? The little boy pointed behind them. They turned just in time for him to disappear.

"Wow. Fast runner." Barnes remarked when they turned back around.

Elena squinted in the direction where the boy pointed and noticed something on the wall. She darted out of the shadows before they could notice it too.

"Hey! Aren't you with those other guys?" Damien demanded, staring at her.

Elena searched for something to say.

"They were… uh… amateurs. We just got hooked up when I, um… showed up at the convention. You two seem… better?" she stammered her way through an explanation.

"Well obviously." Damien scoffed.

She fought back a grimace and pasted a smile on her face.

"I'd rather join you. Play the… um… Elena… to your Dean and Sam." she said.

"Dude, that's totally great!" Barnes said, grinning at Damien.

"What do you think you can bring to this that we don't have already?" Damien asked skeptically.

Elena rolled her eyes and walked forward, pushing past them to the painting that was on the wall where the little boy ghost pointed. She moved it aside to reveal the bloody handprint that was half hidden.

"Must have been what he was trying to tell us." Barnes said, his eyes wide as she turned to them.

"Gee you think Sammy?" Damien said, making Elena wince.

She pulled the painting off of the wall and turned it over, revealing that the back was covered in more bloody handprints.

"You didn't notice this… I did." Elena said triumphantly.

"All right, she's allowed." Damien nodded as Barnes ripped the backing off and revealed an old map.

Elena pulled it out and turned to walk past them as she dropped the painting on the ground.

"Where are you going?" Damien demanded.

She turned to raise an eyebrow at him.

"Sam and Dean would discuss this map over a beer." She said, really wanting to get the map downstairs so that she could show it to the real Sam and Dean.

"She's right." Barnes nodded.

"Fine. But Dean would carry the map." Damien said, reaching out towards Elena.

"Elena would kick his ass if he tried to take it from her." she snapped.

"She's right, Elena would do that." Barnes whispered.

"Would you stop?" Damien snapped as they followed Elena down the stairs.

* * *

"My mommy loves me." Sam and Dean whirled around, shining their flashlights on a boy who was crouched in the corner of the attic.

Dean walked up as Sam followed him.

"I said my mommy loves me." he repeated.

"I'm sure she does." Sam said.

"My mommy loves me this much!" he spread his arms to reveal that he had been partially scalped before disappearing.

* * *

Sam sighed as he hung up the phone and the brothers walked into the bar.

"All right. So that was a guy with the County Historical Society." He said.

"And...?" Dean turned to face him.

"Not only did Leticia Gore butcher four boys, but one of them was her own son." Sam explained.

"Her son." Dean said, looking disgusted.

"Yeah. According to the police at the time, she scalped the kid." Sam nodded.

"Oh that's it, I'm gunna deep fry this bitch extra crispy. Dude say where she was buried?" Dean said, looking angry.

"He doesn't know." Sam said, looking around.

They caught sight of Elena sitting at a table with fake Dean and Sam, leaning over something with them. Her eyes lifted and she gestured for them to come over.

"Check it out. There's the orphanage, here's the carriage house, and right there... cemetery." Barnes said as Sam and Dean walked over.

"You think that's where Leticia's planted?" Damien asked.

They both looked over at Elena.

"It's worth a shot." She nodded, sitting up when Dean and Sam walked up behind her.

Sam reached out to snag the map.

"Hey, hey!" Barnes protested.

"Hey, do you mind?" Damien demanded.

"It's real. A century old, at least, and he's right, there is a cemetery on the grounds." Sam said, looking over the map with Dean.

"Where'd you get that?" Dean asked, looking at Elena.

"It's called a game pal. It ain't called charity. Just cause we stole your Elena…"

"Excuse me?" Dean scoffed.

"You did not steal me. I voluntarily switched teams." Elena said, shrugging at Dean and Sam's questioning glances.

Damien snatched the map back from Dean, glaring at him.

"Hey! Gimme the map chuckles." Dean said, glaring at Damien.

"Yeah well you're the chuckles, Chuckles. Besides, Dean don't listen to nobody." Damien said, pulling his jacket back to reveal a plastic gun.

Elena rolled her eyes along with Dean.

"Dean! Cool it." Barnes said.

Dean reached back and pulled out his own, very real gun.

"Dean!" Elena hissed, pushing his hand down.

"What! They're freakin' annoying." He snapped.

"Look, guys. We all wanna find the bones right? We just thought... it would go faster if we all worked together. Especially since Elena is teamed up with you guys now. We could all use each other's help." Sam said as if it was hurting him physically.

Damien and Barnes exchanged wary looks.

"Ahem. We… uh... we get the Sizzler gift card." Barnes said conditionally.

"Fine." Dean snapped.

"And we get to be Sam and Dean." Damien said quickly.

Sam and Dean exchanged annoyed looks as Dean's hand twitched towards his gun again.

"Fine." Dean rolled his eyes.

"Yes." Damien whispered happily.

* * *

Elena walked in between the two sets of males as they approached the door. When Dean reached out and opened it, she remained behind. The real Winchesters turned to look at her questioningly along with Damien and Barnes.

"You guys go. I'll hold down the fort." Elena said, gesturing around the hotel.

"You sure?" Dean asked, stepping forward.

"Yeah, do you really want to leave Chuck alone with a bunch of nerds in a haunted hotel? The guy'll have a heart attack if anything happens. You two can take care of a ghost." Elena said, rolling her eyes.

Dean pulled her close and wrapped a hand around her waist.

"Hey! She's still with us! No acting out a tortured romance!" Damien argued.

They turned to look at him, a matching ferociousness on their face that made him take a step back.

"You be careful. I don't care if you've got super strength or an angel on your shoulder. You stay safe." He said softly so that no one else could hear him.

"You too." She said, stroking his cheek before pressing a kiss to his mouth.

She heard two people clear their throats and she sighed, pushing Dean away before focusing on Sam.

"Take care of each other. And these two idiots." She said, gesturing to Damien and Barnes.

"I knew it! You were only with us to get the map!" Damien said, horrified.

Elena simply stared at him before turning to walk away.

* * *

Damien and Barnes walked along the path with Sam and Dean walking behind them, bags on their shoulders.

"Hey, Rufus, Bobby, would you hurry it up?" Damien said over his shoulder.

"Are you all right?" Sam whispered to Dean.

"I'm trying to be." Dean snapped grumpily.

"So where were we?" Barnes asked Damien.

"Uh, Dr Ellicott just zapped your brain at the asylum." Damien answered.

"Right, got it." Barnes nodded before going into character. "Why are we even here Dean? You just following dad's footsteps like a good little soldier? You that desperate for approval?"

"This isn't you talking Sam." Damien replied in a deep voice.

Dean turned to Sam, giving him a 'how much do we have to put up with' look. Sam simply frowned and turned back to watch the path they were walking down.

"See that's the difference between you and me. I got a mind of my own. I'm not pathetic." Barnes said.

"So what are ya going to do Sam? Are you going to kill me?" Damien replied.

"Man I am so sick of you telling me what to do." Barnes shot back.

"All right, you know what? That's it. That is it." Dean growled, stopping as he glared at the two men.

They turned around with confused looks.

"What's wrong Bobby?" Damien asked, still in the Dean character.

Dean's eyes widened and he was so angry for a moment that he couldn't speak.

"I'm not Bobby, ok? You're not Sam! You're not Dean! What is wrong with you? Why in the hell would you choose to be these guys?" Dean shouted.

"Because we're fans. Like you." Barnes said in his normal voice.

"No. I am not a fan, ok. Not fans. In fact, I think that the Dean and Sam story sucks. It is not fun. It is not entertaining. It is a river of crap that would send most people howling to the nut house. So you listen to me. Their pain is not for your amusement. I mean do you think they enjoy being treated like... like circus freaks?" Dean growled, glaring between them.

"Uh... I don't think they care, because they're fictional characters!" Damien scoffed.

"Oh they care. Believe me. They care a lot." Dean stormed off down the path, leaving the others staring after him.

Damien and Barnes looked back at Dean with matching 'what the hell' looks.

"He… uh... he takes the story really seriously." Sam nodded, grimacing after Dean.

* * *

"I found the four boys." Dean announced as they shined their flashlights on the graves in the cemetery.

"And here's Leticia Gore." Sam said.

Dean looked up to see Damien and Barnes tiptoeing around the edge of the cemetery, shining their flashlights in the bushes.

"Uh... what are you guys doing?" he asked, staring at them as though they were crazy.

"We're looking for bones genius. They gotta be around here somewhere." Damien said in character.

"Okay... generally, bones are in the ground." Dean said, pointing down.

Sam dumped his bag and began pulling out supplies.

"Yeah, I know that. I just..." Damien watched with wide eyes as Sam pulled out two shovels. "Wait, hold on. Are you guys serious?"

"Deadly." Dean said seriously.

"We're not really digging up graves you guys, we're just playing a game." Damien scoffed, sounding disgusted.

"Trust us. You wanna win the game, right?" Dean said, raising an eyebrow at him.

Thirty minutes later, Dean and Sam were the only ones in the grave and they were just finishing up when Dean's shovel clanged against something. Sam climbed out as Dean handed his shovel up to Damien, who was leaning over the side with Barnes.

He reached down and lifted the cotton lid, revealing a skeleton as a wind blew around the cemetery.

Damien gagged loudly as Dean clambered out of the grave.

"That's not a plastic skeleton. That's a... that's a skeleton skeleton." Damien stammered.

"You just dug up a real grave." Barnes said, his eyes wide.

"Yeah." Dean agreed.

"You guys are nuts." Damien informed them, backing away from the grave.

"I thought you guys wanted to be hunters." Sam said, vaguely amused.

"Hunters aren't real man. This isn't real." Damien said, freaking out.

The two fake huners turned to walk away.

"My God. You guys have seriously lost your grip on this…" Damien said, turning back to look at them.

He suddenly froze and looked terrified.

"What?" Sam asked.

"Naughty, naughty, naughty!" they heard a raspy voice say from behind them.

They whirled around just in time for the ghost of Leticia Gore to backhand Sam across the cemetery. Barnes and Damien screamed, turning to run. Dean turned to rummage in his duffel bag, pulling out salt and burn materials. Barnes tripped as they ran off and Damien called his name as he turned back for him. When they turned to run again, Leticia Gore was standing in front of them. They screamed and grabbed each other fearfully.

"Oh my God!" Damien shouted.

"Naughty, naughty, naughty!" Gore repeated, shoving a hand into each of their chests.

Dean quickly poured salt and kerosene all over the bones, looking up with wide eyes before pulling a lighter out of his pocket and flicking it effortlessly, dropping it into the coffin. Gore screamed as she burned and Damien and Barnes stared at the spot where she was once she disappeared. Dean walked over to Sam and held out a hand for him. The brothers turned to Damien and Barnes, who were staring at them fearfully.

"Real enough for you?" Dean asked.

They simply stared at him, horrified.

* * *

Elena sighed with relief when Dean and Sam came walking into the bar. Damien and Barnes followed behind them, both pale and shaken. Dean smirked at her as they approached the bar where she was sitting.

"Shot of whiskey. Your best." He nodded at the bartender.

"Did it go all right?" Elena asked.

"The bitch is burned, though she didn't exactly make it easy on us." Dean informed her.

When the bartender handed the shot to him, Dean surprised her by sliding it over to Damien, who grabbed it and shot it down easily.

"That was... really..." Damien trailed off.

"Awful. Right?" Dean asked.

Barnes and Damien looked at Sam and Dean with wide eyes where they stood next to Elena, who just looked amused.

"Exactly. Round's on us guys." Dean said, slapping Damien's shoulder as he set money on the bar.

"See you around." Elena said with a smile as they turned to leave.

"Hey. How'd you know how to do all that?" Damien asked, stopping them as they turned to look back at them.

"We… uh... we read the books." Sam said.

Dean and Elena nodded in agreement. When they walked out of the bar, they found Chuck standing with clipboard guy who they also figured was the convention manager.

"Hey Chuck. Good luck with the Supernatural books, and screw you very much." Dean said, saluting him as they passed.

"Fans of yours?" they heard the convention manager ask.

"Hmmm. I'd say no." Chuck said, making them all laugh quietly.

"Hey wait, we forgot our bags." Sam said, pointing back at the bar.

"See you outside." Elena said as they doubled back.

"Here." Dean handed her the Impala keys.

She walked outside and began to walk down the stairs when she heard something. She turned back to the doors with a confused look before walking to them and attempting to open them. They were locked.

"Son of a…" she walked to a window and peeked inside to see one of the ghost children standing at the stairs.

He looked directly at her and smirked before disappearing. She stood back and furrowed her brow as she tried to figure out what was going on. She squinted her eyes and concentrated on the doors but even her extra special super powers didn't work on forcing them open. Whatever was keeping them closed had a very strong presence. It had to be more than one creature. She heard the doors rattle and walked to them.

"That's weird." She heard Dean's muffled voice say.

"Definitely." Sam said from inside.

Elena groaned and let her head fall back as she turned to walk to the Impala and grab her phone where it was in her purse.

* * *

Dean groaned, straining to open a window with no luck as Sam approached him.

"Hey. Anything?" Dean asked.

"Every exit's locked. Almost like..." Sam trailed off.

"Something's keeping us in?" Dean finished, slamming his hand against the window in frustration.

"Yeah. This is bad." Sam sighed.

"Gee ya think Sammy? Elena probably doesn't even know." Dean said, looking out into the dark parking lot.

His phone suddenly rang and he pulled it out to see her number calling him.

"Or maybe she does." Sam said.

"Hey." He said once he answered.

"I'm locked out and I can't force the doors open with my superpowers for some reason. I'm guessing you're locked in." she said, sounding frustrated.

"Yep." Dean nodded.

Suddenly a woman's scream pierced the air.

"Call you back." Dean said before they ran upstairs to see the female who was acting as the ghost of Leticia running out of the library, looking behind her fearfully.

Dean caught her as she barrelled into him.

"Don't go in there!" She cried, sobbing in his arms.

"Get downstairs ok? Go go!" he instructed her before they turned to walk into the library.

The same little boy from the attic was crouched in the corner holding his hands over his face.

"Why'd you do that? Why did you send my mommy away?" the boy whimpered.

"Uh, maybe because of the high and tight she gave you, huh? How bout some thanks." Dean scoffed.

Sam cleared his throat, raising his eyebrow at Dean.

"Well, I'm just saying a little gratitude might be nice once in a while." Dean shrugged.

"My mommy didn't do this to me." the little boy said, looking at them from between his fingers.

"What? Then who did?" Sam demanded.

The little boy suddenly disappeared and they heard a shout from the hallway.

They ran out into the hallway to find the hook man with the strange accent dead, scalped just like the little boy.

* * *

"It's the little kids." Dean said into the phone as they walked into the auditorium where Chuck was wrapping up the convention.

"Of course it's the little kids." Elena sighed.

"Well guys I guess we're out of time. So thank you for your incredibly probing and rigorous questions, and have a good..." Chuck was interrupted by Sam running onto the stage and whispering into his ear.

"Hey... what? Holy crap!" Chuck exclaimed.

"You should get Chuck to keep everyone in one room." Elena informed Dean.

"Yeah, we're working on it." Dean said as the audience murmured in concern over Chuck's reaction.

"You gotta keep everyone safe in here Chuck. This is life or death." Sam hissed as he covered the microphone.

"For how long?" Chuck demanded.

"As long as it takes." Sam shrugged unapologetically.

"Well... how the hell am I supposed to do that?" he asked.

"I don't know man. Just do it." Sam said as he turned to walk off the stage.

"Ok. So uh… good news. I got much more to tell you... I guess." Chuck said with a high-pitched voice.

"Get all of the hotel staff in there so that you know where everyone is at once." Elena said.

"Can you figure out a way to get in here?" Dean asked.

"I've tried every single entrance. There's nothing." Elena sighed as he walked out to usher the staff into the room.

"All right well… I'll call you when everyone is accounted for." Dean said.

"Buddy, I got work to do." The hotel manager complained as they filed into the auditorium.

"You're gonna want to see this, trust me. It's gunna be a helluva show." Dean said, not believing his own words in the slightest.

Dean closed the door and began laying salt outside of it along with Sam.

"Ok. New theory. The legends about Leticia are ass-backwards obviously." Dean said as they stood.

"Yeah. So all right, let's say those three orphans were playing cowboys and Indians." Sam suggested.

"LARPing as cowboys and Indians." Dean corrected him with a smirk.

"Whatever. And let's say they scalped Leticia's son and killed him." Sam said.

"Mom catches 'em in the act, flips out, slices them and dices herself." Dean agreed.

"If that's true it means we've got three bloodthirsty brats in the building." Sam sighed.

"Yeah and Leticia was the only one keeping them under control."

"Smooth move on our part." Sam said, rolling his eyes..

"Yeah, well we gotta get back to the cemetery, torch the kids' bones." Dean said.

"How? We're trapped, we don't even have our guns! The ghosts are running this joint and they're only scared of one thing." Sam said.

"Exactly." Dean said, grinning as he pulled out the phone to dial Elena.

"Hey we know what's going and we need to salt and burn the bones of the boys."

"Okay, I can do that." Elena said.

"We have all of the supplies in here." Dean replied.

"That was genius of us." She shot back.

"Yeah." Dean agreed.

* * *

"You want me to do what?" the ghost woman actor asked, raising an eyebrow at them.

"You're an actress. We just want you to act." Dean said.

"I work at Hooters, in Toledo. No, you can forget it." she said, shaking her head.

"You'll be safe, we promise. This is really important." Sam said desperately.

A hand suddenly dropped on Dean's shoulder.

"We wanna help." Damien said as Dean turned to see him and Barnes standing there.

"Just give her the puppy dog thing ok?" Dean said to Sam before turning to the other two.

"Guys, no." he said, shaking his head.

"Why not?" Barnes questioned.

"Cause this isn't make-believe." Dean said.

"Look, we know. We're not nuts. We're freakin' terrified." Damien said.

"Yeah but if all these people are seriously in trouble, we gotta do something." Barnes nodded.

"Why?" Dean demanded, exasperated.

"Because. That's what Sam and Dean would do." Damien said simply.

* * *

Dean stood just outside the door of the library as the actor woman walked into the room nervously.

"I don't wanna do this." she whimpered.

Dean leaned around the corner to reassure her.

"I'm right here sweetheart, I've got your back. Trust me, this is going to work." He said.

He pulled back so that he couldn't be seen.

"Boys? Boys? Come here this instant. You come when I call you. You understand me?" she said in a nervous voice.

"Miss Gore?" a boy's voice suddenly said as the three appeared in the room.

* * *

Sam, Damien, and Barnes all threw their weight against the front doors, attemping to slam them open.

"Put your backs into it!" they heard Elena yell from outside, much to their displeasure.

* * *

"You boys have been very naughty. Now you open the doors. Open the doors right now." The actress said, pointing at them as she became more confident.

The boys all flickered backwards, worried.

* * *

The door suddely gave a little and Elena darted forward to pull it open as far as she could.

"Go go go." she heard Sam say as Damien and Barnes shoved their way through the small gap.

* * *

"Very naughty, you hear me?" she said, glaring at them.

Suddenly music began to play from a cell phone. The boys all forwned and looked at each other as the main door slammed shut downstairs before Sam could make it through. Dean closed his eyes and began banging his head softly against the wall out of frustration. The actress, terrified, pulled her phone out of the pocket of the dress and shut the music off as the ghost boys stared at her with devious expressions. Dean walked into the room, his iron bar raised.

"Run!" he said, shoving her towards the door.

The boys all raised their knives, advancing on him.

* * *

"Sam?" Elena called, yanking on the door.

"Elena I can't get through. Damien has one of the bags. Go do it." he said.

Elena turned to the two men and shook her head before running down the stairs with them following her. She slid off her shoes and took off down the path at a quick sprint.

"Slow down!" Damien huffed.

"Speed up!" she shouted back at them.

When they reached the cemetery, she instructed them to dig a grave each as she dug her own.

"Oh my God. Supernatural makes digging graves seem so easy. It's not though. I'm gonna throw up." Damien grunted as they dug as quickly as they could.

"No you're not." Elena snapped back.

* * *

Dean was thrown against the wall, his iron bar sliding across the room. The boys raised their knives and advanced on him again but Sam ran in and dispersed all three with his own iron bar. He held out a hand and helped Dean up.

"Thanks." Dean nodded.

Sam was suddenly thrown backwards, his own iron bar skidding across the floor.

"Sam!" Dean shouted, starting forward when he saw that Sam was knocked unconscious.

He was slammed backwards and a boy appeared on top of him, holding up a knife as he glared down at him.

* * *

Elena watched with an annoyed look as Damien flicked his lighter repeatedly, failing at lighting it each time.

"How come Dean can always light the stupid thing on the first freaking try?" he said frustratingly.

Elena felt the feeling flaring up in her that Dean and Sam were both in danger and her limited patience finally broke.

"Oh give it to me!" she snapped, grabbing it from him and lighting it on the first try.

* * *

Another ghost appeared on top of Sam and grabbed him by the hair, yanking his head backwards as he held a knife to his hairline.

"No! Dean!" Sam shouted as he came to, struggling.

Dean was also being held down, the boy on top of him holding his throat as he approached his own scalp with the knife. Suddenly both boys burned up and Sam and Dean laid there, gasping as they laid back.

* * *

Elena sighed with relief as she walked to the duffel bag, her instincts telling her that Sam and Dean were just fine.

"You did good." She said, nodding at the two men before gathering up the supplies and turning to head back to the hotel.

They followed her and, once they climbed up the steps, she automatically concentrated on the doors to check on her abilities, causing them to fly open.

"What the hell?" Damien said, his eyes wide.

"Ghosts." Elena lied, smirking as they hesitantly approached the threshhold.

Dean and Sam came walking down the stairs, both holding iron bar's and looking exhausted.

"You know, maybe that guy was right. We should put these on bungies." Dean sighed, tossing the bar to the floor.

Elena grinned and shook her head as Chuck walked into the room.

"The ghosts are gone?" he asked.

"Yes, they are." Damien said in Dean's voice.

They all turned to stare at him.

"Sorry." He shrugged.

* * *

"You know I gotta hand it to you guys. You really saved our asses back there. So uh… you know… thanks." Dean said as they watched the gurney being rolled out with the foreign hook guy's body in a body bag and the lights from the emergency vehicles flashed on their faces.

Damien and Barnes shrugged, grinning at Dean.

"Guys, I don't even know your names." Dean said.

"Oh. Well, I'm Barnes. This is Damien. What's yours?" Barnes said with a smile.

Elena turned to grin at Dean, wondering what he would say.

"Dean. The real Dean." He decided.

After a moment, Damien and Barnes bursted out laughing.

"Yeah right. Me too!" Damien choked out.

"Get the hell out of here Dean!" Barnes said, shaking his head.

Dean looked disappointed for a moment before smiling.

"Well, anyway. Thanks. Really." He said, sliding his hand into Elena's as they turned to walk away.

"You're wrong you know." Damien said.

They stopped and turned back.

"Sorry?" Dean asked.

"About Supernatural. No offense but I'm not sure you get what the stories about." Damien said.

"Is that so?" Dean said as both him and Elena smirked.

"All right. In real life, he sells stereo equipment. I fix copiers. Our lives suck. But to be Sam and Dean, to wake up every morning and save the world. To have a brother who would die for you. Well who wouldn't want that?" Damien shrugged, looking over at Barnes.

Dean and Elena exchanged a look and she shrugged, smiling.

"Maybe you got a point." He sighed.

"You know, you two don't make a bad team yourselves. How do you know each other anyway?" Elena asked, smiling at the men.

"Oh. Well, we met online. Supernatural chat room." Barnes nodded.

"Oh. Well it must be nice to get out of your parent's basement. Make some friends." Dean said, making Elena laugh and hit his shoulder.

"We're more than friends." Damien said, taking Barnes' hand. "We're partners."

Barnes dropped his head on Damien's shoulder and they both grinned at Dean and Elena.

"Oh. Wow. Ahem. Howdy partners." Dean nodded at them, looking slightly traumatized.

"Howdy." Barnes replied.

* * *

"Look Sam. I'm not gonna lie. We had undeniable chemistry. But like a monkey on the sun it was too hot to live. It can't go on. Chuck and I, we found each other. My yin to his proud yang. And well, the heart wants what the heart wants. I'm so so sorry." Becky said, looking over at Chuck happily.

"Yeah Sam. Sorry." Chuck said, smiling sheepishly at him.

Sam grimaced at both of them, uncomfortable in this conversation as Dean and Elena walked up to them.

"Will you be all right?" Becky asked.

Sam sighed, looking over at Elena who winked at him. He shook his head and put on a sad face.

"Honestly I don't know. I'll just have to find a way to keep living, I guess." He said dramatically, making both Dean and Elena grin.

"God bless you." Becky said, looking at him sympathetically.

"Ok. Oh, hey. Chuck. If you really wanna publish more books, I guess that's ok with us." Sam said, causing Elena and Dean to look at him with wide and slightly angry eyes.

"Wow. Really?" Chuck said, excited.

"No not really. We have guns and we will find you." Sam said seriously, making them relax.

"Ok, ok. No more books." Chuck nodded.

"See you around." Sam said as Elena took his arm to walk off with the brothers.

"Sam! Wait, one more thing. In chapter 33 of Supernatural Time is on my Side, there's that girl Bela? She was British, and a cat burglar." Becky said, making them turn their heads back.

"Yeah I know." Sam nodded.

"She stole the Colt from you and then she said she gave it to Lilith, remember?" Becky said.

"Yeah." Dean said, nodding.

"Well you know she lied right, she didn't really give it to Lilith." Becky said.

"Wait, what?" Sam said, looking at Chuck with wide eyes.

"Didn't you read the book? There was this one scene where Bela gives the Colt to a demon named Crowley. Lilith's right hand man. And I think her lover too." Becky said happily.

"Crowley." Sam said.

"Didn't it occur to you to tell us this before?" Dean asked Chuck.

"I'm sorry. I didn't remember. I'm not as much of a fan as she is." Chuck said, smiling at Becky.

"Becky, tell us everything." Elena said, not knowing who Bela or Crowley was.

Becky gave them a huge smile before launching into an explanation of what happened in the book.

* * *

"Don't you feel like we should be out looking for the Colt?" Sam asked.

"Nope. I got my ass kicked by three evil kids. I'm relaxing." Dean said as he leaned back against the headboard.

"Besides we have no idea where this Crowley guy is and until Cas answers our phone calls, we won't know." Elena said, flipping through a book.

"What are you reading" Dean asked.

Elena looked over at him with a slightly guilty expression.

"Becky gave me the most recent book. Told me I should read chapter twenty-four." She said, flushing.

"What's in chapter twenty-four?" Dean asked with a smirk.

"Umm… nothing." She said too quickly, her head snapping back to the book.

Dean leaned in and she bit her lip as his eyebrows raised and his smirk grew more pronounced.

"Well… Chuck's got quite the imagination." Dean said.

"Artistic license, I suppose." Elena said, glancing over at him before looking back at the book.

Suddenly both of their heads tilted to the right at the same time.

"Can you really… in a shower? Isn't that slippery?" Elena murmured.

"It's entirely possible." Dean said confidently.

Elena looked over at him for a moment before catching her lower lip between her teeth again. Dean looked into her eyes and an unspoken communication passed between them. Dean was up and out of bed and throwing her over his shoulder. She let out a pealing laugh as he ran into the bathroom.

"Oh God, really guys?" Sam complained.

"Leave if you don't like it!" Dean yelled, slamming the door shut.

* * *

"I don't like it, Gabriel." Cas said.

"I really couldn't care less, Castiel. We are drawing ever closer to the final showdown. More importantly, Elena only has a month left before Zachariah unleashes his wrath on her." Gabriel said, leaning back in the chair he was sitting in.

Castiel turned from the window to stare at him.

"They aren't going to say yes. No matter what you do to them." He warned him.

"Oh I have a lot in store for the brothers. For Elena too, of course. But I am going to have to find a way to keep her quiet." Gabriel said.

"Quiet? What do you mean?" Castiel asked, confused.

"Don't concern yourself, brother." Gabriel said, smirking at the medical drama that was playing on the television.

"You are now returning to Dr. Sexy M.D."

* * *

**Author's Note: For those of you who know the series, I think you know which episode is coming up next. I'm excited! Also, you will have to know for the next chapter, and I will remind you, Cas doesn't know that Gabriel is the trickster. If I ever made it seem like he did, I'm sorry. I never intended for it to seem like he knew. That will be important for the next chapter.**

**Elena's outfits are on my profile.**

**Also, I know I keep teasing sex scenes and I'm sorry. But I really have a hard time writing them and I haven't been feeling it lately. I will write one in the next two chapters, I promise. Most likely the next chapter.**

**REVIEW PLEASE!**

**We made it to 100 reviews! Tell me what's on your mind. Anything you want to see or any relationship pairings (especially for Sam), let me know in your review! I want to hear what you want to read!.**


	9. Chapter 9

**Disclaimer: I do not own TVD or Supernatural**

**Thanks to SeargantPixie, xxPaige23xx, Nyssandria, RHatch89, slayerdiaries, MrsMaeveSalvatoreMikaelson, Dark Alana, Dark-Supernatural-Angel, TheElegantFaerie, Hale-Winchester, DrawingMyHeartOut, MaddAlice, diehardromantic, Hollywood17, LineChokor, and the two guests for reviewing! I love you all!**

**SeargantPixie****, I die a little bit too when I realize it.**

**Nyssandria****, I promise Cas and Elena will have their bonding time very soon. I mean a very extended amount of bonding time. Multiple chapters in a row.**

**LineChokor****, we are not too far away from the moment when a certain statement is said by one or two people. I think you know what I mean.**

* * *

**A few things:**

**1. Crowley is not in this chapter but I promise he will be in the next one. He will be sassy. Elena will be sassy. Even a certain devil in Mark Pellegrino's body will be sassy.**

**2. I apologize in advance for the ending of this chapter.**

**3. There is a lemony part in this chapter. The warnings are there for when it starts and ends so you can skip it if you'd like.**

**4. Enjoy (I hope)!**

* * *

**Music:**

**Love's to Blame – Joel & Luke (very end scene)**

* * *

Elena smiled happily as she pulled on her clothing. It was finally warm enough outside for her not to have to bundle up in winter clothing. That was the problem with them spending most of their time up in the northern states. After throwing on her clothing, she focused on the mirror and quickly straightened her hair, pulling half of it back in clip when she was done. When she walked out, she saw Sam walking in holding breakfast for them. They both stopped short when they saw Dean fumbling with the remote trying to turn off the television. Elena's first thought was that he was watching porn but she saw what was on and grinned.

"What are you watching?" she asked, amused.

"Hospital show. Dr. Sexy, MD. I think it's based on a book." Dean said, trying to act casual all of the sudden.

"When did you hit menopause?" Sam smirked at his brother as he handed a coffee to Elena.

"It's called channel surfing." Dean scoffed, turning the television off as he took his own coffee.

Sam grabbed his suit jacket off of his bed and pulled it on.

"You ready?" Dean asked, looking between them.

"Are you?" Sam said with a grin, holding up the Impala keys.

Dean yanked the keys out of his hand and turned to walk out with Elena and Sam walking behind him.

"Are you just wearing that?" Dean asked, inspecting the dress and the thin sweater.

"Yep! It's warm!" Elena said, grinning at him.

"It's not that warm." He informed her.

"It's warm enough." she shrugged, ignoring the slight chill in the air.

"All right. Well if you get cold, don't come crying to me. I warned you." he said, fixing his tie as they walked.

"I'm not gonna get cold." She said with certainty.

Dean simply shrugged skeptically.

* * *

"One more time, the FBI is here why, exactly?" the police officer asked, leaning across the desk.

"Might have something to do with one of your locals getting his head ripped off." Dean informed him as Elena stood slightly away from him trying to hide the fact that she had goosebumps on her arms.

She didn't count on it being cold in the police station. Sam glanced over at her and smirked but she put her finger to her lips to hush him.

"Bill Randolph died from a bear attack." The officer said, staring at them.

"How sure are you that it was a bear?" Sam asked.

"What else would it be?" the man asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Well, whatever it was it chased Mr. Randolph through the woods, smashed through his front door followed him up the stairs, and killed him in his bedroom." Elena said, trying to ignore the coldness as she leaned forward. "Is that common, a bear doing all that?"

"Depends how pissed off it is, I guess. Look, the Randolphs live way up in high country. You got trout runs to make a grown man weep. And bears." The officer said, shaking his head.

"Right. Now, what about Mrs. Randolph? The file says she saw the whole thing." Sam said.

"Yes, she did. My heart goes out to that poor woman." The man nodded.

"She said bear?" Dean asked.

"Kathy Randolph went through a hell of a trauma. She's confused." He informed them.

"What did she say?" Sam asked, not trusting this guy to tell them the truth rather than what he believed to be true.

"You know what? How about you just go talk to her?" the officer said before directing them to an interrogation room.

As soon as Dean turned around, his eyes narrowed at Elena.

"You're cold, aren't you?" he asked.

"No?" she said, her denial coming out with less certainty than she'd like.

He sighed and shook his head.

"I didn't count on it being cold inside." she said pathetically, looking down at her shoes.

Before she knew it, Dean was sliding his jacket over her shoulders.

"Maybe you should listen to me next time. You don't always have to be the only one doing the protecting." He murmured in her ear as she slid her sleeves into the jacket.

"Thank you." she whispered back, smiling at him over her shoulder.

* * *

"No, it must have been a bear." Kathy Randolph said as she sat on one side of the table.

Elena was leaning against the wall as Sam and Dean sat at the table with her.

"I mean, what else could it have been?" she shrugged, sounding unconvinced.

"Mrs. Randolph, what do you think it was?" Sam asked.

"No, I, I remember clearly now. It was definitely a bear." Kathy said, nodding her head.

"We're sure it was. But see, it helps us to hear every angle. So just tell us what you thought you saw." Dean urged her.

"It's impossible, but... I could have sworn I saw... the Incredible Hulk." She said with wide eyes.

Elena stared at her, unable to decide if she was kidding or not.

"The Incredible Hulk." Sam said, obviously thinking the same thing.

"I told you it was crazy." She mumbled, looking down at her hands.

"Bana or Norton?" Dean asked.

"Oh, no, those movies were terrible. The TV Hulk." She said suddenly, looking up at him.

"Lou Ferrigno?" Dean said.

"Yes." She nodded.

"Spiky-hair Lou Ferrigno." Dean said.

"Yes." Kathy said definitively, sounding more confident now.

"Huh." Dean said as him and Sam exchanged a look.

Kathy noticed this and sighed.

"You think I'm crazy." She said.

"No. Uh, no, it's just... is there, uh, would there be any reason that Lou Ferrigno, the Incredible Hulk, would have a grudge against your husband?"

"No." Kathy said, giving Dean a strange look as if it was her turn not to believe what he was saying.

"No." Dean nodded.

* * *

Elena had her head in Dean's lap as he flipped through the television channels. He was in his normal casual outfit and she was in comfortable clothes, including shorts that made him shake his head at her stubbornness. One of his hands was running through her hair softly as she played with his other hand, running her fingers over the scars on the knuckles and the lines on his palm. Sam opened the door and walked in, still in his FBI outfit.

"Hey." He said, pulling his jacket off and sitting on his bed.

"Find anything?" Dean asked.

"Well, uh, I saw the house." Sam said.

"And?" Elena asked, looking back at him.

"And there is a giant eight-foot-wide hole where the front door used to be. Almost like, uh..."

"A Hulk-sized hole." Dean finished for him.

"Maybe. What do you got?" Sam asked, referring to the research that Dean had done on his laptop earlier.

"Well, it turns out that Bill Randolph had quite the temper. He's got two counts of spousal battery, bar brawls, and court-ordered anger management sessions. You might say you wouldn't like him when he's angry." Dean said with a smirk.

"So a hothead getting killed by TV's greatest hothead. Kinda sounds like just desserts, doesn't it?" Sam said, looking as though he got an idea.

Dean snorted, shaking his head.

"It's all starting to make sense." Sam said, standing up and turning to face them.

"How is it starting to make sense?" Dean asked as Elena sat up, both of them confused.

"Well, I found something else at the crime scene." He pulled a handful of candy wrappers out of his pocket.

"Candy wrappers." He said. "Lots of them."

"Just desserts, sweet tooth, screwing with people before you kill 'em… we're dealing with the Trickster, aren't we?" Dean sighed, making Elena's eyes widen.

She, at Gabriel's request, never informed Sam and Dean that they knew the archangel because he was the Trickster.

"Sure looks like it." Sam nodded.

"Good. I've wanted to gank that mother since Mystery Spot." Dean said, standing up.

"You sure?" Sam questioned.

"Yeah I'm sure." Dean scoffed.

Elena looked down at her hands, unsure of whether or not to speak up.

"No, I mean are you sure you wanna kill him?" Sam asked.

"Son of a bitch didn't think twice about icing me a thousand times." Dean snapped and Elena's eyes shot up to him.

"What?" she said.

"That's a story for another time." Dean sighed, shaking his head.

Elena's eyes narrowed. Now she was going to have to have words with Gabriel.

"No, I know, I mean, I'm just saying…"

"What are you saying? If you don't want to kill him, then what?" Dean cut Sam off.

"Talk to him?" Sam suggested questioningly.

"What?" Dean scoffed.

"Think about it, Dean. He's one of the most powerful creatures we've ever met. Maybe we can use him." Sam shrugged.

Elena looked up at him with an interested look.

"For what?" Dean asked.

"Okay, Trickster's like a Hugh Hefner type, right? Wine, women, song… maybe he doesn't want the party to end." Elena bit her lip, thinking that he had Gabriel down to a tee. "Maybe he hates this angels and demons stuff as much as we do. Maybe he'll help us." Sam shrugged.

"You're serious." Dean said, sounding skeptical.

"Yeah." Sam nodded.

"Ally with the Trickster." He said slowly.

"Yeah."

"A bloody, violent monster, and you wanna be Facebook friends with him? Nice, Sammy." Dean said, shaking his head.

"The world is gonna end, Dean. We don't have the luxury of a moral stand. Look, I'm just saying it's worth a shot. That's all. If it doesn't work, we'll kill him." Sam said.

Elena opened her mouth to say something but thought better of it and snapped it shut.

"How are we gonna find the guy, anyway?" Dean sighed.

"Well, he never takes just one victim, right? He'll show." Sam shrugged.

Elena got up and walked to the bathroom, trying to decide whether or not to tell them. On the one hand, if they did catch up with Gabriel, they were going to figure out that she knew who he was the whole time and be unhappy. On the other hand, Gabriel did request that she keep it quiet. She stared in the mirror, her mind fighting two different sides of the same battle. When she blinked, she suddenly found herself standing in a different room. It was a warehouse.

"What the hell?" Elena said, turning around in circles.

"Nope. Just me." she turned to see Gabriel walking towards her.

"What is this I hear about you icing Dean a thousand times?" she asked immediately.

"Oh that's so far in the past... let's not speak about that." Gabriel said, shaking his head as he waved her off.

"Why are you here?" Elena questioned, knowing she wasn't going to get a straight answer out of him before she ever asked the question.

"Oh I just want to make the Winchesters… and you… think a few things over. So all I'm gonna need you to do is keep your pretty mouth shut. They can't know that I'm an angel, you hear? This won't work if they figure it out. If you keep your mouth shut, I'll let you remain with them throughout the whole experiment. If you blab, I'll shut you away until it's over." He warned her.

"Gee, Gabriel. I'm really feeling the love here." Elena snapped.

"Don't worry. It'll be over soon enough." he said, smirking at her before disappearing.

Suddenly she was back in the bathroom again.

"Um, Dispatch? I, I got a possible 187 out here at the old paper mill on Route 6?" she heard a voice over their police scanner say from outside the room.

She walked out to see them gathered around it.

"Roger that. What are you looking at there, son?" another voice said.

"Honestly, Walt, I, I wouldn't even know how to describe what I'm seeing. Just… send everybody." The original voice said, terror in his tone.

"All right, stay calm, stay by your car. Help's on the way." the dispatch said.

Sam turned off the scanner, turning to look at Dean.

"That sounds weird." The older brother said.

"Weird enough to be our guy." Sam nodded.

* * *

Elena shivered as they got out of the Impala. There were no police cars or anything and she instantly knew that Gabriel had drawn them here and that this was the warehouse she'd just been in with him.

"There was a murder here, and there's no police cars. There's nobody. How's that look to you?" Dean asked as he opened the trunk.

"Crappy." Sam agreed.

Dean pulled out three blood-tipped stakes and flashlights out of the trunk and handed one of each to the two of them before closing the trunk. They turned to enter the building and Elena had a feeling that it would be a while before they were going to exit it. As soon as they walked through the door, Elena found herself alone in a hallway. She looked around wildly, confused, as she realized that she was on a hospital based on the people around her. When she looked down, she realized that she was in a set of light blue scrubs and a white lab coat with her picture on an ID card clipped to the lab coat.

"What the hell?" she mumbled.

"Doctor." Someone nodded at her as they passed her and she looked up at them with wider eyes.

When she looked around, she saw a ruggedly handsome man walking towards her with his hands in his pockets and his long hair blowing in a non-existant wind. She immediately recognized him as the man off of the television program that Dean was watching earlier in the day, Dr. Sexy M.D. As he passed, he winked at her and she felt like she knew him even though she didn't. How was it possible that she was in a television program? She began to follow the man and rounded the corner to see Dean and Sam standing there in similar clothing. Dean looked up and his eyes widened, first at Elena and then at the man she was following.

"Oh boy." She heard him say.

"What?" Sam asked.

"It's him." Dean said as they drew closer.

"Who?" Sam said, frustrated.

"It's him, it's Dr. Sexy."

Elena rolled her eyes as the man came to a stop in front of them and looked at Dean. She stopped just behind them.

"Doctor." Dr. Sexy said.

Dean looked down, hiding a satisfied smile.

"Doctor." He said.

The man turned to Sam.

"Doctor." He said.

Sam simply nodded and Dean elbowed him in the ribs.

"Doctor." Sam choked out.

Dr. Sexy turned back to address Dean.

"You want to give me one good reason why you defied my direct order to do the experimental face transplant on Mrs. Biehl?" he demanded.

"One reason?" Dean asked, panicking.

Dr. Sexy nodded, serious.

"Sure." Dean shrugged as he looked down.

His brow furrowed and suddenly he looked up before slamming the doctor into the wall.

"Dean! What the…" Elena said, starting forward.

"You're not Dr. Sexy." Dean hisses, holding his collar.

"You're crazy." The man said, not at all put off by Dean's behavior.

Elena stood a little ways back, wondering why she all of the sudden found Dean's aggressiveness so damn sexy.

"Really? Because I swore part of what makes Dr. Sexy sexy is the fact that he wears cowboy boots. Not tennis shoes." Dean snapped.

"Yeah. You're not a fan." Sam scoffed.

"It's a guilty pleasure." Dean shrugged.

"God that's hot." Slipped out of Elena's mouth before she could help it.

Dean and Sam looked at her with wide eyes as she clapped her hands over her lips.

"Call security." Dr. Sexy said casually to another doctor who was watching.

"Yeah, go ahead, pal. See, we know who you are." Dean snapped, turning his attention back on the man.

Suddenly everyone around them froze and they looked around with surprise. When they looked back, Elena's eyes widened as Dr. Sexy morphed into Gabriel.

"You guys are getting better!" he said, grinning at Dean and Sam who glared at him.

"Get us the hell out of here." Dean growled.

"Or what?" Gabriel said, grabbing Dean's arm and twisting, making him let go.

"Don't say you have wooden stakes, big guy." He said teasingly.

"That was you on the police scanner, right? This is a trick." Sam demanded.

"Hello? Trickster. Come on! I heard you two yahoos were in town along with your girl. How could I resist?" Gabriel shrugged, grinning at them.

He turned to wink at Elena.

"Where the hell are we?" Dean demanded.

"Like it? It's all homemade. My own sets…" Gabriel said, rapping on the window before indicating the frozen people.

"… my own actors... call it my own little idiot box." He said, twirling around to face them.

"How do we get out?" Dean asked.

"That, my friend, is the $64 question." He shrugged.

"Whatever. We just, we need to talk to you. We need your help." Sam said.

Gabriel glanced over at Elena before laughing, shaking his head.

"Hm, let me guess. You two muttonheads broke the world, and you want me to sweep up your mess." He said, smirking.

"Please. Just five minutes. Hear us out." Sam said pleadingly.

"Sure. Tell you what. Survive the next twenty-four hours, we'll talk." Gabriel said.

"Survive what?" Elena demanded, narrowing her eyes at him.

"Hello darling. I'm the Trickster, as you must know." He said, grabbing her hand to kiss it.

"The game!" he answered her question happily.

"What game?" Dean demanded, stepping between Elena and Gabriel.

Suddenly the smell of his aftershave reached Elena's nose and she fought with herself over whether or not to jump him right in that hallway. What was wrong with her?

"You're in it." Gabriel said with a grin.

"How do we play?" Dean asked.

"You're playing it."

"What are the rules?" Dean asked as Elena reached out a hand and put it on his shoulder, dying to rip the lab coat off of him.

Gabriel raised an eyebrow and grinned before vanishing.

"Oh, son of a bitch." Dean growled, whirling around.

"God you're hot when you curse." Elena said, unable to keep herself under control for much longer as she shoved him against the nearest door and pressed her lips against his.

"Dr. Sexy? Dr. Sexy?" a blonde doctor said cluelessly as she walked past searching for him.

"Guys? I don't think this is the best time." Sam said as they continued kissing.

Elena broke away from Dean's mouth to kiss down his neck and tried to force the jacket off of his shoulders.

"Sorry, Sammy. But it's kinda a side-effect of the show. Everyone is super… super horny." Dean said, groaning when Elena nipped at his neck.

Elena grabbed the front of his shirt and opened the door to the supply closet behind him before shoving him in.

"Elena…" Sam began to protest.

"Sorry Sam." she said without a second look before leaping into Dean's arms and kissing him thoroughly as her legs wrapped around his waist.

**LEMONY**

Dean didn't waste any time, slamming the door shut as he kissed her back. He shoved her against it and her hands finally removed his lab coat and made quick work of untucking his scrubs top. It was over his head instantly and he quickly got rid of her coat and top as well. Their hands roamed each other's torsos eagerly as they searched out each other's mouths hungrily.

"You know it's probably the Trickster making us like this." Dean gasped as he pulled away to yank her bra off.

"I don't care. I just want you." Elena said.

She launched forward and they collapsed onto the ground, ripping the rest of their clothing off without caring about the cleanliness of the floor. Dean flipped them over and spreaded her legs easily, his fingers trailing up her thigh to tease her womanhood.

"No time for teasing. I just need you." Elena growled, pulling him down to kiss her as her hips ground up into his.

Dean groaned and his head fell back as he positioned himself at her opening. Elena took the chance to begin kissing and biting and sucking at his throat. When he slid inside of her, both of them moaned with relief and pleasure. He started thrusting in and out at a slow place but it wasn't enough for her.

"Harder! Faster!" she demanded, her hands gripping his shoulders tightly

Dean quickly obliged, speeding up his actions. Neither of them cared that it wasn't going to be a drawn out affair. They were too heated to want to make it last longer. It didn't take long for both of them to be screaming in pleasure as they drew ever closer to their desired climax.

"Dean!" Elena cried, arching her back as her walls began to clamp down on him.

He followed soon after, collapsing on top of her as both of them came down from their highs.

**END LEMONY**

"I sure hope that wasn't broadcasted." Elena mumbled, grinning with satisfaction.

"If it was, their viewers just went up." Dean said confidently.

* * *

Elena and Dean finally emerged from the closet a few minutes later, basking in the afterglow but still having the decency of looking slightly ashamed.

"Congratulations, I think the whole hospital heard you." Sam said, looking pained as he pushed himself off the wall.

Elena bit her lip as Dean shrugged and they turned to walk down the hallway.

"Oh, by the way. Talking with monsters? Hell of a plan." Dean said to Sam.

"Just, what do we do now?" Sam said, ready to leave this place.

"You know what I'm doing? Leaving." Dean nodded, trying to look around for an exit.

Elena watched as a brunette approached and took a swing at Sam, who ducked it.

"Lady, what the hell?" he demanded, his frustration making Elena think that this woman had already confronted him before.

"You are a brilliant, brilliant…" she said slowly.

"Yeah. A coward. You already said that. But I got news for you. I am not a doctor." Sam snapped.

She looked appalled at his words.

"Don't say that. You are the finest cerebrovascular neurosurgeon I have ever met, and I have met plenty. So that girl died on your table. It wasn't your fault. It wasn't anybody's fault. Sometimes people just die." She said, her eyes widening as they stared at her.

"I have no idea what you're saying to me." Sam grumbled, rolling his eyes.

"You're afraid. You're afraid to operate again. And you're afraid to love." she said, tears filling her eyes before she turned to walk away.

"Yeah, we're getting out of here." Sam said, turning to walk off.

"Hey. Doctor." A man said, stepping out of a patient room to stop Dean.

"Yeah." Dean said.

"My wife needs that face transplant." The man said.

"Okay. You know what, pal? None of this is real, and your wife doesn't need jack squat. Okay?" Dean snapped, just as frustrated as Sam.

They turned to continue walking.

"Hey, Doctor." They heard him say again.

They all jumped when a gun went off and Elena felt Dean stumble beside her before falling to his knees.

"Real… it's real…" Dean grunted as Elena dropped to catch him.

"Dean!" she shrieked, watching the blood spread on his back.

"No no no, no no no no no… hey! We need a doctor!" Sam shouted.

"I can't heal him with the bullet still in his back, Sam." Elena said with wide eyes.

"Can you pull it out?" Sam asked.

"No, no pulling it out with bare hands." Dean grunted in her arms.

Suddenly they all blinked and they were in an operating room. Sam was holding instruments and Dean was lying on the table face down with a sheet covering everywhere on his back except for the small bullet wound.

"BP is eighty over fifty and dropping." One of the interns in the room informed Sam.

"Doctor." One of the other interns said, holding out a scalpel.

Sam didn't take it, staring at her with wide eyes.

"What?" he said.

"Sam." Both Elena and Sam jumped when they realized that Dean wasn't under anesthesia.

"Do something. Come on. Get the bullet out so Elena can do her thing." he commanded.

"I don't know how to use any of this crap." Sam hissed.

"Figure it out." Dean shot back.

Sam grinned around awkwardly before looking at Elena for help. She shrugged as she cursed Gabriel in her mind.

"Sam. Come on. I'm waiting." Dean growled.

"Okay. Um. I need a penknife and a fifth of whiskey." Sam said, waving the scalpel off as he gulped loudly.

The other doctors looked at him and each other, confused.

"Stat!" Elena shouted, causing everyone to start moving.

She watched as Sam proceeded to remove the bullet.

"We okay? How's it looking?" Dean asked once it was out of his back.

"Just relax." Elena said, looking up at the people watching.

"Get out." she said.

They all turned to leave after staring at her for a second. She sighed and put her hands over his back, quickly healing the wound and sighing with relief.

"You'll be fine." Sam announced as she drew away.

Suddenly they all heard loud chanting and looked around, confused. When Elena blinked, she was once again standing in a different place. She looked down with wide eyes at what she was wearing. **(Same thing that the other girls are wearing on the episode)**

"I'm going to kill him." she muttered as she looked around at the crowd that was chanting in another language.

She caught sight of Sam and Dean standing on two pedestals that were separated. Their feet were tied down and there was a red button beside them and a long stick with a ball on the end that extended out in front of them. The two blue doors that were behind them suddenly opened and a Japanese man with a brightly colored suit came running out. Elena tried to run to them but a Japanese girl that was standing beside her stopped her in her tracks, shaking her head with a smile.

"Let's play Nutcracker!" the Japanese man said before launching in a rant in Japanese.

Elena looked around to see a sign that had the number '20' on it. Suddenly the crowd went silent and the host pulled a set of cards out of his jacket.

"Sam Winchester." He said, causing Sam's head to snap over to him.

He continued to speak in Japanese and somehow, Elena suddenly understood it.

"What was the name of the demon you chose over your own brother? Countdown."

"What?" Sam said, panicking as the clock began counting down the seconds.

"Sam." Elena said and he turned to look at her.

"No no no! No help!" the host said and suddenly a strip of duct tape was over her mouth.

The two Japanese girls on either side of her grabbed her arms with a lot of strength so that Elena couldn't rip it off.

"Uh, what am I supposed to say?" Sam asked, looking at Dean.

"You think I know?" Dean said, as lost as his little brother was.

"Uh, I, I don't, I don't understand Japanese." He said to the host.

The man just replied in Japanese, repeating the question.

"Is he screwing with me? I, I, I can't speak Japanese." Sam said desperately.

The screen suddenly hit zero and a buzz filled the stage.

"The answer is... Ruby!" the host announced loudly. "I'm sorry, Sam Winchester."

"Sorry? Sir? For what?" Sam said, his head whipping around.

The host mimed hiding laughter very poorly and Elena struggled agaisnt her captors.

"Dean?" Sam whimpered.

The pole on Sam's platform suddenly shot up and whacked Sam in the crotch, causing him to bend over in excruciating pain, as Dean looked horrified and the crowd cheered loudly.

"Nutcracker!" the host yelled triumphantly.

"Sam?" Dean said, looking at his brother with a grimace.

Sam simply let out a whimper as he doubled over in pain. One of the Japanese women let Elena go and walked over to the host to do a product placement.

"You okay?" Dean asked.

Sam simply looked at him with eyes that told the older Winchester that it was a stupid question. The remaining girl held both of Elena's hands behind her back as she continued to struggle.

Suddenly there were several large bangs on the doors and the lights began flashing.

"Oh now what?" Dean snapped, turning to glare at the door.

They opened to reveal Castiel walking through. The crowd began cheering at his appearance. The Japanese girl let Elena go in surprise at seeing the angel appear. Elena ripped the tape off of her mouth and ran forward.

"Cas?" Dean said.

"Is this another trick?" Sam said, his voice hoarse.

"It's me. Uh, what are you doing here?" Castiel asked as Elena stood behind him.

"Us? What are you doing here?" Dean demanded.

"Looking for you. You've been missing for days." Castiel said.

"So get us the hell out of here, then!" Elena said, grabbing his hand.

"Let's go." Cas reached out to touch Sam on the forehead as Elena reached out to touch Dean's hand.

* * *

Suddenly they were no longer on the stage. Elena looked around to see that she was in the warehouse again.

"I thought I would save you the pain of seeing your boy toy get his nutcracker moment." Gabriel said.

"Get them out of there, now." She snapped when she turned to glare at him.

"Not gonna happen sugar. Fortunately, you're not needed for a while so you and I need to talk. I am doing this for you, you have to realize that. You are less than a month away from the end of the line. If I can get the boys to say yes before then…" he began.

"That isn't your choice, Gabriel. How many different ways to I have to say that?" Elena said desperately.

"It's my family, Elena! I am tired of seeing them fight! I just want it to be over and this is how it ends! Now play your role!" he shouted and it was the first time Elena had seen him truly lose control.

"You cannot ask me to sit back and let you force them into letting two angels take over their bodies and, in the process, most likely be destroyed." She said, shaking her head.

"That is exactly what I'm asking you to do." Gabriel said.

"Well I'm not going to do it." She said stubbornly.

"Then I'm going to keep you quiet. If you try to intervene again, I'm going to be forced to hide you away like Cassie."

Elena stared at him.

"I will play this out. I will play your stupid game. But when it comes down to it, you can count on me taking their side. And if you'd pull your head out of your ass, you'd realize that you should take their side too." Elena said.

"I'm on my side, darling. The only side that's ever gonna do me any good." Gabriel said.

"That's not true. If you would try to be on our side, you might find that it'll do you a lot of good. Now take me back. I'll do whatever and say whatever as long as you don't try to make me make them say yes." Elena said, crossing her arms.

The archangel sighed exasperatedly before snapping his fingers. Elena looked around to see that she was standing in a hotel bathroom. She looked down and her eyes bugged as she took in what she was wearing.

"I hate you, you asshole." She muttered, somehow knowing that Gabriel could hear her.

She looked up at the door and saw a sign on it.

**Don't walk out until Dean reassures Sam that he's doing research**.

"What does that even mean?" she wondered.

"Hey there, Sam. What's happening?" she heard Dean's muffled voice.

"Oh, nothing. Um. Just the end of the world." Sam answered and laughing sounded outside of the room.

She quickly realized that they were on a sitcom.

"You're gonna need a bigger mouth." Sam said and laughter sounded once again.

"Hey, uh, have you done your research yet?" Sam asked and Elena looked down with uncertainty before walking to the door.

"Oh, yeah. All kinds of research. All night." Dean said and Elena reached out to open the door.

"Yeah? Hm." Sam said skeptically as she opened the door.

Wolf whistles sounded and she suddenly knew what to do like it was rehearsed.

"Oh, Dean..." she said in a seductive voice, playing with the belt on her robe that didn't cover as much as it should have.

Sam looked at her with surprise. She saw that the set was a brighty lit room that looked like a cleaner and nicer version of the motels they usually stayed in.

"We have some more research to do." She said in a breathy voice, smirking at his shocked expression at what she was wearing.

Sam folded his arms, trying to look as though he was berating his brother.

"Dean..." he said.

Dean turned to face the camera that was on the edge of the stage.

"Son of a bitch!" Dean said, looking fake frustrated.

"Elena, you should have known better. We have work to do." Sam said with a smile.

"But we did do work!" she shrugged, walking up to stand behind Dean, snaking her arms around his waist as she leaned her head against his back.

Her heels were tall enough that she could put her chin on his shoulder.

There was another laugh track and Dean forced a smile to Sam.

"How long do we have to keep doing this?" he muttered as they came together while still trying to stay in character.

"I don't know." Sam replied and applause sounded.

"Maybe forever?" Elena said, sounding unsure.

More applause and laughter.

"We might die in here." Sam said.

The laughing sounded again.

"How was that funny? Vultures." Dean snapped.

Suddenly the door flew open and Castiel ran in, looking a little beat up.

"You okay?" Dean said, dropping the act as they walked to him.

Cas looked out at the audience with confusion before turning to them.

"I don't have much time." he said.

"What happened?" Sam asked.

"I got out." Cas said.

"From where?" Dean questioned.

"Listen to me. Something is not right. This thing is much more powerful than it should be." Castiel said quickly.

Elena was confused now. Didn't Castiel know that this was Gabriel doing everything? How was it possible that he didn't know?

"What thing… the Trickster?" Dean asked.

"If it is a trickster." Cas said doubtfully.

Elena opened her mouth but suddenly found duct tape on it again.

"What do you mean?" Sam asked as they didn't realize that Elena couldn't speak.

Suddenly Castiel was flung backwards and he fell to the ground after hitting a wall. Gabriel suddenly ran in to immense applause and cheers.

"Hello!" he said, bowing.

Castiel stood and Elena saw that he had duct tape on his mouth as well. He looked at her with wide eyes before looking at Gabriel with a stunned look.

"Thank you. Thank you, ladies." Gabriel said, soaking up the attention.

"Hi, Castiel!" he said, smirking before gesturing to him, causing him to disappear.

"You know him?" Sam demanded.

"Where did you just send him?" Dean asked, finally noticing that Elena had duct tape on her face and he helped her as she struggled to get it off.

"Relax, he'll live… maybe." Gabriel shrugged.

"All right, you know what? I am done with the monkey dance, okay? We get it." Dean snapped as he gave up on the duct tape and started forward to glare at him.

"Yeah? Get what, hotshot?" Gabriel asked.

"Playing our roles, right? That's your game?" Dean scoffed.

"That's half the game." Gabriel said with a wink.

"What's the other half?" Sam demanded.

"Play your roles out there." Gabriel said, gesturing to the door.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Dean said.

"Oh, you know. Sam starring as Lucifer. Dean starring as Michael. Your celebrity death match. Play your roles." Gabriel said and they finally understood the message that he was trying to get to them.

"You want us to say yes to those sons of bitches?" Sam demanded.

"Hells yeah. Let's light this candle!" Gabriel said, grinning.

"We do that, the world will end." Sam said desperately.

"Yeah? And whose fault is that? Who popped Lucifer out of the box? Hm? Look, it's started. You started it. It can't be stopped. So let's get it over with!"

Sam glared at him.

"Heaven or hell, which side you on?" Dean said.

Elena began scraping at the duct tape, wondering why in the hell she couldn't get it off.

"I'm not on either side." Gabriel said, his eyes flashing to Elena.

"Yeah, right. You're grabbing ankle for Michael or Lucifer. Which one is it?" Dean demanded.

"You listen to me, you arrogant dick. I don't work for either of those S.O.B.s. Believe me." Gabriel said, glaring at Dean as his patience began to wear thin.

"Oh, you're somebody's bitch." Dean said, smirking.

Suddenly he grabbed Dean by the collar and slammed him against the wall. With his momentary frustration breaking his concentration on other things, Elena was able to rip the duct tape off of her mouth but it hurt like a bitch and she let out a cry as tears sprung to her eyes.

"Don't you ever, ever presume to know what I am. Now listen very closely. Here's what's gonna happen. You're gonna suck it up, accept your responsibilities, and play the roles that destiny has chosen for you." Gabriel snapped.

"And if we don't?" Sam asked.

Gabriel turned to grin at him. Elena considered ripping him off of Dean but she wasn't stupid. Gabriel was still an archangel. He was still a thousand times stronger than her and he could smite her where she stood.

"Then you'll stay here in TV Land. Forever. Three hundred channels and, uh, nothing's on." Gabriel said, snapping his fingers.

* * *

Elena looked around to see that they were outside at a crime scene. They were all in business clothing and Dean and Sam were both wearing matching blue button down shirts and sunglasses even though it was nighttime.

"Oh, come on." Dean snapped, pissed.

"So, what do you think?" a police officer asked from next to Dean.

"What do I think? I think go screw yourself, that's what I think." Dean growled, making the man walk away with wide eyes.

"You gotta calm down." Sam sighed.

"Calm down? I am wearing sunglasses at night." Elena let out a giggle as he yanked them off. "You know who does that? No-talent douchebags."

Sam nodded in agreement.

"I hate this game. I hate that we're in a procedural cop show and you wanna know why? Because I hate procedural cop shows. There's like three hundred of them on television and they're all the freaking same. It's ooh, plane crashed here… oh shut up." Dean growled.

Sam suddenly noticed something at the crime scene and took off his sunglasses.

"Hey." He said.

"What?" Elena asked, messing with the Miami PD badge that was around her neck.

"Check out sweet tooth over there." He pointed at the police officer who Dean yelled at.

He was sucking on a lollipop.

"Think that's him?" Dean asked.

"Just, um, follow my lead." Sam said.

Elena followed as they walked over to the body. They both put their sunglasses as a police officer lifted the tape for them to duck under.

"You, uh, you okay?" the police officer who they thought was Gabriel asked Dean.

"Yeah. What do we got?" Dean asked in a huskier voice than he usually had.

"Well, aside from the ligature marks around his neck, he has what appears to be a roll of quarters jammed down his throat." The officer said.

Dean took off his sunglasses and pulled out a flashlight to bend down and take a closer look. Sam took off his sunglasses as well.

"Well I say, jackpot." Sam said dramatically.

Elena shook her head and hid her smile as the officer snorted in amusement.

"Also, there is a stab wound to the lower abdomen." He said, pointing at the bleeding wound with his lollipop.

Dean took a stick from the ground and poked at the wound, making Elena grimace before she remembered that the Trickster was supposed to be able to be killed by a stake dipped in dead man's blood.

"Well I say, no guts, no glory." Dean said as he stood and put his sunglasses back on.

The officer laughed as Sam put his on as well.

"Get that guy a Tums." Sam said.

Elena shook her head and rolled her eyes at them.

"Gutter ball." Dean said.

The officer kept laughing as he turned to walk off.

"Good one, guys." He threw over his shoulder.

Suddenly Dean came up from behind him and stabbed the stick into his heart, grinning triumphantly as he gurgled and dropped the lollipop. The man collapsed to the ground and Elena looked to see that none of the extras noticed or cared about what just happened.

Suddenly someone started laughing behind them and they turned to see Gabriel standing there dressed as another officer.

"You've got the wrong guy, idiots." He scoffed.

"Did we?" Dean said, his eyes flickering to Sam who walked up behind Gabriel and stabbed him in the heart with the stake.

Elena winced as he collapsed onto his stomach. They were suddenly standing in the warehouse in the clothes that they were all wearing before the whole thing started. Elena looked down at Gabriel's unmoving figure.

"Let's get out of here." Dean sighed, turning to walk off.

"He's not dead." Elena said, turning to look at Dean.

"What do you mean? That's how we kill a Trickster." Dean said.

"You heard Cas, didn't you? He's not a Trickster. You saw they recognized each other. Can you really not see it?" Elena said.

"Son of a bitch." Dean growled and turned around to look at Sam but he was no longer there.

"Where'd he go?" he said.

"We're still in TV land because he's not dead." Elena said, turning to walk out of the warehouse.

"Sam?" she shouted, looking around.

Dean joined her, yelling for him as well.

"Dean? Elena?" they heard.

It was Sam but his voice sounded odd. They walked towards the car because that's where it sounded like it was coming from.

"Sam? Where are you?" Dean said.

"I don't know." Sam said and they both realized where he was as they approached the car.

"Oh crap. I don't think we killed the Trickster." Sam's voice said, coming from the radio of the car.

"It's not a Trickster. But I think I know what we're dealing with." Dean said.

* * *

"How did you know that it wasn't the Trickster?" Dean asked Elena as they stood on the side of the road and he dug around the trunk of the Impala.

"Dean?" Sam's voice interrupted them.

"What?" Dean snapped.

"That, uh, feels really uncomfortable." Sam admitted.

Dean slammed the trunk shut.

"Ow." Sam complained.

"How did you know?" Dean asked.

Elena sighed and shook her head.

"Because I've known since the beginning." She said.

"What? And you didn't tell us?" Dean demanded.

"You don't think I tried? Every time I did I got whisked away or unremovable duct tape slapped on my mouth!" Elena shot back.

He stared at her for a moment before nodding. Then he walked to the front of the car and turned his head to the sky.

"All right, you son of a bitch! Uncle! We'll do it!" he yelled.

Elena stared at the ground as they waited.

"Should I honk?" Sampala questioned.

"Wow. Sam. Get a load of the rims on you." Gabriel said with a smirk, walking around the Impala.

"Eat me." Sam shot back.

"Okay, boys. Ready to go quietly?" he asked, grinning as he stood in front of them.

"Whoa whoa whoa, not so fast. Nobody's going anywhere until Sam has opposable thumbs." Dean demanded.

"What's the difference? Satan's going to ride his ass one way or another." Gabriel shrugged, grinning.

Dean glared at him and he rollled his eyes before snapping his fingers. Elena and Dean turned to see Sam climb out of the car looking less than thrilled.

"Happy?" Gabriel asked.

"Tell me one thing. Why didn't the stake kill you?" Dean asked.

"I am the Trickster." He shrugged as if it was explanation enough.

"Or maybe you're not." Sam said, holding up a lighter and tossing it down.

Elena sighed as a ring of fire sprung up around him.

"Maybe you've always been an angel." Dean said.

Gabriel turned his gaze on Elena before laughing.

"A what? Somebody slip a mickey in your power shake, kid?" he scoffed.

"I'll tell you what. You just jump out of the holy fire and we'll call it our mistake." Dean said, gesturing to the fire.

Gabriel let out one more laugh before his face became serious and he knew he'd been caught. The scene suddenly transformed and they were in the warehouse once again.

He began clapping.

"Well played, boys. Well played. And you didn't even need Elena to tell you to be able to figure it out. Where'd you get the holy oil?" he asked, grinning at them.

"Well, you might say we pulled it out of Sam's ass." Dean said.

"So… where'd I screw up? Other than trusting that Elena would keep her mouth all the way shut." Gabriel said.

"You didn't. Nobody gets the jump on Cas like you did." Sam said.

"Mostly it was the way you talked about Armageddon." Dean continued.

"Meaning?" Gabriel asked.

"Well, call it personal experience, but nobody gets that angry unless they're talking about their own family." Dean said with a slight smirk.

"So which one are you? Grumpy, Sneezy, or Douchey?" Sam asked.

Gabriel looked at Elena with an arched eyebrow.

"Do you wanna tell 'em, cupcake?" he asked.

Sam and Dean looked at her with questioning looks. Elena stared at him before sighing.

"Gabriel. This is Gabriel." She said, gesturing to him.

"Gabriel? The archangel?" Sam said.

"Your guardian angel, Gabriel?" Dean said, sounding pissed again.

"Guilty." Gabriel said with a smirk.

"So not only did you know what he was, but you knew who he was this entire time too?" Dean demanded.

"Yeah, Dean. I did." Elena shot back.

"Did you know that he was going to do this?" Dean said.

She looked at the ground.

"Why didn't you warn us?" he demanded.

"Gabriel was going to do this either way! I couldn't stop him. He said that if I kept my mouth shut and I let him play his little game that I could remain with you and protect you the whole time. Which is a good thing because you got freaking shot!" Elena exclaimed.

Dean glared at her before turning to face him.

"How does an archangel become a trickster?" he asked, barely containing the fury in his voice.

"My own private witness protection. I skipped out of heaven, had a face transplant, carved out my own little corner of the world. Till you two screwed it all up." Gabriel snapped, gesturing to Sam and Dean.

"What did Daddy say when you ran off and joined the pagans?" Dean asked.

"Daddy doesn't say anything about anything." Gabriel scoffed.

"Then what happened? Why'd you ditch?" Sam questioned.

"Do you blame him? I mean, his brothers are heavyweight douchenozzles." Dean offered.

"Shut your cakehole. You don't know anything about my family. I love my father, my brothers. Love them. But watching them turn on each other? Tear at each other's throats? I couldn't bear it! Okay? So I left. And now it's happening all over again." Gabriel said and Elena could hear a hint of pain in his voice.

Gabriel drove her crazy most of the time. Especially when he messed with Sam and Dean and made it clear that he wanted them to sacrifice themselves. But when she looked past his hardened mask that was covered in sarcastic comments, she saw someone who was in pain. Someone she could help and that's what drew her to him.

"Then help us stop it." Sam suggested.

"It can't be stopped." Gabriel said, shaking his head.

"You wanna see the end of the world?" Dean demanded.

"I want it to be over! I have to sit back and watch my own brothers kill each other thanks to you two! Heaven, hell, I don't care who wins, I just want it to be over." Gabriel sighed, sounding tired.

"It doesn't have to be like that. There has to be some way to, to pull the plug." Sam said desperately.

Gabriel suddenly bursted into laughter.

"You do not know my family. What you guys call the apocalypse, I used to call Sunday dinner. That's why there's no stopping this, because this isn't about a war. It's about two brothers that loved each other and betrayed each other. You'd think you'd be able to relate." He said, gesturing to the brothers.

"What are you talking about?" Sam asked.

Both of them were steadily avoiding looking at Elena and that was driving her insane.

"You sorry sons of bitches. Why do you think you two are the vessels? Think about it. Michael, the big brother, loyal to an absent father, and Lucifer, the little brother, rebellious of Daddy's plan. You were born to this, boys. It's your destiny! It was always you! As it is in heaven, so it must be on earth. One brother has to kill the other." Gabriel said, making Elena's eyes widen.

She hadn't heard this prophecy.

"What the hell are you saying?" Dean growled.

"Why do you think I've always taken such an interest in you? Because from the moment Dad flipped on the lights around here, we knew it was all gonna end with you. Always." Gabriel informed them.

There was a long pause in which Sam and Dean exchanged a look.

"No. That's not gonna happen." Dean finally said, turning to face him.

"I'm sorry. But it is." Gabriel sighed, sounding truly sorry for once.

"Guys. I wish this were a TV show. Easy answers, endings wrapped up in a bow...but this is real, and it's gonna end bloody for all of us. That's just how it's gotta be." Gabriel said, turning to look at Elena, who was remaining quiet.

She knew that Dean was pissed at her and maybe Sam was even mad at her. So she wasn't going to say a word.

"So. Boys. Now what? We stare at each other for the rest of eternity?" Gabriel asked.

"Well, first of all, you're gonna bring Cas back from wherever you stashed him." Dean said.

"Oh am I?" Gabriel asked, smirking.

"Yeah. Or we're going to dunk you in some holy oil and deep-fry ourselves an archangel." Dean said.

"Dean, you…"

He cut her off with one look and she snapped her mouth shut again. Gabriel glared between them before snapping his fingers. Cas appeared worse for wear but alive.

"Cas, you okay?" Dean asked.

"I'm fine." Cas said.

"Hey, bro. How's the search for Daddy going? Let me guess. Awful." Gabriel said, grinning tauntingly at him.

Castiel glared at him.

"I told you that I didn't like it. I told you that playing around with them was taking it too far. You put Elena in a very difficult situation." Cas snapped.

"And I told you that it was none of your business." Gabriel shot back.

"You knew too?" Dean asked, staring at Cas.

"I didn't know that he would go about it like this. I had no idea that he was posing as the Trickster. It took me by surprise." Cas said.

Dean shook his head, looking angry.

"Okay, we're out of here. Come on, Sam." Dean said as he turned to walk away.

Cas and Sam followed him but Elena stood there, looking at Gabriel.

"Uh. Okay. Guys?" he called.

They turned to look at him.

"So, so what? Huh? You're just gonna, you're gonna leave me here forever?" he scoffed, looking over at Elena before looking back at Dean.

"No. We're not, 'cause we don't screw with people the way you do. And for the record? This isn't about some prize fight between your brothers or some destiny that can't be stopped. This is about you being too afraid to stand up to your family!" Dean shouted before pulling the fire alarm.

They all looked up in time to see the sprinklers go off. Elena looked back to see Dean staring at her expectantly. Part of her wanted to snap at him that she was surprised he still wanted her to come with him. She turned to Gabriel.

"You can't keep playing with us like this." she said.

He stared back at her.

"I shouldn't have helped you. I should have fought harder to tell them. Dean is right. You are just as messed up as the rest of us." She sighed, turning to walk off as she shivered in the freezing cold water.

"Dean!" Gabriel called before the hunter walked out.

They turned back to look at him.

"Why don't you ask Elena about what Zachariah has planned for her?" Gabriel suggested as the holy fire burned out underneath the water.

Elena's eyes widened and she felt panic fill her chest. But the fury that came with his words overrode it and she stared at him with blazing eyes.

"You son of a bitch." She whispered. "I trusted you."

"I thought you learned your lesson. Never trust an angel." He said before disappearing.

Elena remained rooted in her spot, staring at where he was standing before.

"What does he mean?" Dean demanded, his voice loud to be heard over the water.

She turned back to him, soaked through but not caring at all.

"Dean…" she began.

"Tell me what he was talking about!" he shouted as he walked towards her, fury and hurt in his eyes.

Elena tried to hold back her tears as she told him everything. She tried to ignore the increasing coldness in his eyes. But pretty soon, she couldn't tell the difference between the sprinkler water and the tears running down her face. When he turned to walk away, she let out a sob unwillingly.

"Dean!" she cried, stumbling forward.

He didn't turn back. He just slammed the door open and stomped out. Elena let out a wail of sadness as the water continued to pour down on her.

* * *

**Author's Note: I'm so sorry! This is not the ending I intended to write at all! It was supposed to be a happy ending but it kinda just came out as this! And I keep trying to make Gabriel a good guy but he keeps coming out looking bad! None of this is going as I planned! I promise Gabriel will redeem himself! I promise Elena and Dean will be okay! Gah!**

**Review please and Elena's outfits are on my profile.**


	10. Chapter 10

**Disclaimer: I do not own TVD or Supernatural**

**Thanks to slayerdiaries, TheElegantFaerie, RHatch89, Dark Alana, Nyssandria, xxPaige23xx, MaddAlice, Dark-Supernatural-Angel, chiwi, DrawingMyHeartOut, Hollywood17, LineChokor, SeargantPixie, diehardromantic and the two guests that reviewing! I love all of you!**

**A few things:**

**1. Get ready for sassy people in this chapter.**

**2. The italics are Elena remembering the confrontation with Dean after she tells him everything to do with Zachariah.**

**3. There is a big thing happening to do with Elena's abilities in this chapter. So get ready for that too.**

* * *

**Music:**

**Heavy in Your Arms – Florence + the Machine (first scene)**

**Believer – Viva Voce (Carthage scenes)**

**Running Up That Hill – Placebo (Death rises through the end of the chapter)**

* * *

The sun was beating down on her skin, making it warm. Elena looked down at her flowing dress and the heeled sandals that she was wearing. She looked around as she walked through the salvage yard behind Bobby's house. She heard heavy footsteps behind her crunching the gravel down. She sighed and continued walking, approaching the barn. Her arms extended out and she pushed the doors open, lighting up the entire large room. She hadn't been there since the confrontation between Alastair and Cas and Uriel with Anna stuck in the middle along with the rest of them. She let her hands trail over one of the wooden pillars that was holding the ceiling up as she walked into the barn.

"I thought you weren't speaking to me." she said softly, still facing away from him.

"So did I." his gravelly voice said.

Elena turned and let her head tilt to the side as she looked at him.

"I've respected your wishes. I've kept away from you. For weeks now I've kept my mouth shut when I'm around you. I've avoided your presence. Why are you here now? To remind me of what I've lost?" she asked.

Her tone wasn't accusing or hurt, it was emotionless. She'd gone through too much turmoil in the last few weeks to let her emotions through. It didn't help that the next day marked the end of the countdown. Zachariah was coming for her and there was nothing they could do to stop it besides Dean saying yes, which wasn't going to happen.

"I… I saw you and…" he said, shaking his head before approaching her.

"I couldn't not come. I couldn't stop myself." He said, reaching out to touch her cheek.

Elena leaned into his touch, sighing as her body reacted immediately to him. It had been too long. Far too long. Suddenly she was wrapped in his arms and he was staring down at her with his emotion-filled green eyes.

"I'm still… so angry with you. So unbelievably fucking angry." He said, his words coming out in a harsh tone.

"I know." She said.

Dean stared at her for a moment before he shoved her backwards into the wall of the barn.

"I can't forgive you." he said, his hands tangling in her long hair.

"You won't have to. Zachariah is taking me tomorrow." Elena said, her hands clenching in his jacket before she practically tore it off of his shoulders.

"What happened to screaming and yelling? What happened to you fighting back? Trying to get me to forgive you?" He demanded, one of his hands dragging the strap of her dress down.

"I gave up. You wouldn't listen to me anyways." Elena snapped back, feeling her anger rise.

"You think you have any right to be angry with me?" he growled as she ripped his shirt off of him.

"I am angry with you. You wouldn't listen. You still won't listen. Yet you follow me out here and make me hope." She said.

**Lemony**

His hand that was still tangled in her hair pulled her head back and his lips descended on her neck, biting and sucking. She whimpered and her hands dragged down his bare torso, her nails digging into his skin. He groaned and pulled away, shoving her dress up before he lifted her. Her legs easily wrapped around his waist.

"I can barely look at you, I'm so fucking pissed off." he growled, glaring up at her.

Elena's hand slid into his hair and yanked it, pulling his head back.

"You seem to be fine looking at me right now." She fired back.

Before she could say another word, his lips covered hers in a bruising kiss. She felt one of his hands go between their hips as he shoved her against the wall to balance her weight. She felt, rather than heard, him unbutton and unzip his pants. In the next moment, he was shoving her underwear aside. When Elena felt his tip teasing her entrance, she threw her head back and moaned. He forced her head back down, rougher than he'd ever been with her. Elena wouldn't admit it, but she didn't mind that he wasn't being gentle.

"I want you to look at me." he growled before he slid into her.

Elena bit her lip and whimpered as he filled her. His eyes were clouded over with lust and he didn't waste any time before thrusting in and out of her hard and fast. Their voices combined in the empty air of the barn as he held her against the wall. Elena scratched her hands down his back, screaming as he hit **that** spot inside of her each time. They didn't say each other's names, neither one of them wanted to give the other that satisfaction. Elena felt something strange as she approached a screaming climax, like something was pulling her out of the room and away from Dean even though they were still pushed up against the barn wall. She let out a whine as she felt her eyes slowly close and then open.

**End Lemons**

* * *

Elena gasped, sitting straight up in the bed as flashes of the dream went through her mind. Her and Dean in a barn. She ran her fingers through her hair as her eyes adjusted to the darkness of the room. She scooted back to press her back against the headboard as she curled her knees up to her chest. Her dreams had been vivid ever since their confrontation with Gabriel two days ago but they hadn't been that vivid. Her eyes slid up and she immediately caught sight of Dean across the room lying on the couch. His back was facing her and he was fully dressed in his clothing. Elena stared at him for a moment before sliding out of bed and walked into the bathroom, waiting to turn the light on until she shut the door so that she wouldn't bother Sam and Dean.

She looked in the mirror at the bags underneath her eyes and sighed softly, pulling her hair up into a pontail. As she looked down at the plain white counter, tears blurred her vision before she could help it.

"_Why don't you tell Sam what you've been hiding from us? From me? See how he takes it!"_

Elena shook her head, rubbing her eyes until the burning tears went away. When she heard voices, she froze to look at the door.

"_Dean, calm down. Hear her…"_

It was Dean and he was murmuring softly, making her think that he was on the phone.

"_Sammy I swear to God if you say hear her out!"_

"… just don't lose him, Cas." she heard Dean murmur distinctly.

"_Cas? You knew about this? Why the hell didn't you tell me?!"_

She heard shuffling and a grunt sounded.

"Cas found Crowley. We gotta go."

"_Why the hell did you think it would be okay to keep this from me?! In what world is that all right?!"_

Elena walked to the door and reached out to open it, wanting to be a coward and hide in the bathroom, pretending like she hadn't heard anything. But that wouldn't work. They were going to hunt down a possibly dangerous demon. They would need their guardian.

"_I don't give a damn that you were trying to protect me! Fuck trying to protect me! You lied to me! You kept this from me!"_

She opened the door slowly, putting a mask on her face to guard her emotions.

"_Sam don't tell me to calm down! She put her life in danger because she thought that she knew better than us! That she could deal with this on her own!"_

Despite wanting to so badly, she didn't drop her eyes when they turned to look at her as she emerged from the bathroom. But Dean didn't look at her. Not really. His eyes simply flickered over her before returning to the bag he was packing up.

"Cas…"

"… found Crowley. I heard." She cut Sam off, noticing how hoarse her voice sounded.

"_Aren't you going to yell at me and storm out too, Sam?"_

"Good. We're, uh… we're gonna go ahead and take off. Head that way. Crowley's house is protected with angel-sigils so Cas can't get in." Sam explained.

"_I'm not mad. I understand why you did what you did. You weren't lying just to lie. You were protecting us."_

Elena nodded, grabbing clothes to change into.

"_Dean refuses to see it that way."_

"We might need a distraction to get us into Crowley's gates." Dean said.

Elena fought the urge to sigh heavily, turning back to her bag. That was the only words he ever said that might have possibly been directed towards her and even then there was a chance that he wasn't even trying to talk to her.

"_He'll come around."_

She pulled out a different outfit, walking into the bathroom to change.

"_What if he doesn't?"_

* * *

Elena grumbled quietly as she stumbled up to the intercom.

"Hello?" A staticky voice said once she pressed the button.

"Hello? My car broke down. I… I need some help." She stammered, trying to sound as panicked as she could.

"I'll be down in a minute." The man said.

She wrapped her arms around her waist as she waited. Suddenly the gates swung open, creaking as they did so. Two men approached her.

"Evening, pretty lady. Get yourself on in here." One of them said with a grin.

"I just need to make a call." She said, trying to sound as unsure as she could.

"You don't need to call anyone, baby." He said, grinning back at the other man.

"We're the only help you're ever gonna need." The other guy said, smirking.

"You know what? I think I should wait by my car." Elena said, turning to walk off.

The first man grabbed her shoulder, whirling her around as his eyes went black.

"We said, get your ass in here." He snapped.

Elena looked up at him and suddenly grabbed his throat, throwing him to the ground easily with her knee on his chest. She looked back to see Sam shove the demon-killing knife into the other demon. Then he tossed it to her and she effortlessly disposed of the one that was struggling underneath her grip.

"Nice work." Sam said, holding his hand out to help her up as Dean walked past them with a bag of weapons, a pair of wire cutters in his hand.

"Thanks." She said, walking with Sam in the same direction that the older brother took off towards.

When they made it to the front lawn, they separated, Dean tossing Sam the wire cutters as he and Elena walked towards the house. He eased open a window and stepped back to let her climb through first.

"Sure that dress was a good idea? It's short." He whispered as they crept through the house.

Elena looked at him with surprise. This was the first time he'd addressed her directly in a couple of days.

"If I wanted someone to tell me I dressed like a slut, I would have asked." she snapped, the words slipping out of her mouth before she could help it.

"I wasn't saying that." he hissed.

"Yeah and I'm sure you weren't thinking it either." She said sarcastically as Dean pulled out a red spray paint can and bent over a decorative rug.

After a few minutes, the electricity sudden cut out and they heard footsteps approaching them as they backed away from the rug. An impeccably dressed man walked in, flicking the light switches.

"It's Crowley, right?" Dean said, both of them listening for Sam to walk in after he cut the electricity.

"So. The Hardy Boys and their very own Nancy Drew finally found me. Took you long enough." the man said in an English accent.

Elena was holding Ruby's knife and Dean a shotgun. Crowley moved to approach them but stopped short just before stepping on the rug. He bent down and pulled a corner back, revealing the devil's trap that Dean drew onto it.

"Do you have any idea how much this rug cost?" he said, annoyed.

Suddenly two demons launched forward and grabbed them from behind, disarming and pinning their hands behind their back easily. Another demon dragged Sam in, who looked less than pleased as a trickle of blood slid down his cheek from a cut on his eyebrow. Crowley held up a gun that Elena assumed to be the Colt.

"This is it, right? This is what it's all about." He asked, aiming the gun at Dean.

Elena stared with horror as he cocked it. But then he adjusted the aim and proceeded to shoot all three demons that were holding them.

"We need to talk. Privately." He said as they looked down at the dead demons.

"What the hell is this?" Dean demanded as they followed him into a comfortable living room.

"Do you know how deep I could have buried this thing?" Crowley said, turning to them.

He waved a hand and the doors suddenly slammed shut.

"There's no reason you or anyone should know this even exists, except that I told you." he said, nodding at them.

"You told us." Sam scoffed.

"Rumors, innuendo, sent out on the grapevine." He shrugged, leaning against an ornate fireplace.

"Why? Why tell us anything?" the younger Winchester questioned.

Crowley aimed at him again before smirking.

"I want you to take this thing to Lucifer and empty it into his face." he said simply.

"Uh-huh, okay, and why exactly would you want the devil dead?" Dean said, skeptical.

"It's called…" Crowley said, putting the gun down on the mantle above the fireplace. "… survival. Well, I forgot you two at best are functioning morons."

Crowley rolled his eyes as he spoke and Elena simply stared at him, unimpressed. She already put together why he would want to kill Lucifer. It wasn't hard to figure out based on what she'd heard about the devil from Gabriel.

"You're functioning... morons..." Dean stammered, unable to come up with a good comeback.

"But your girl here, I've heard she's a smart one. Can you tell us, darling?" Crowley asked, smirking at her.

Elena stared at him for a moment before sighing.

"Lucifer isn't a demon. He's an angel. An angel famous for his hatred of humankind. To him, we're just filthy bags of pus. If that's the way he feels about us, what can he think about you?" Elena shrugged, sitting on the arm of a chair.

"Right you are." Crowley said, nodding at her.

"But he created you." Sam argued.

"To him, we're just servants. Cannon fodder. If Lucifer manages to exterminate humankind, we're next. So, help me, huh? Let's all go back to simpler, better times, back to when we could all follow our natures. I'm in sales, dammit! So what do you say if I give you this thing, and you go kill the devil?" he said, gesturing to the Colt.

"How do we know you're not selling us out to Lucifer? That you won't call him as soon as we leave?" Elena asked.

"That's a fair question. The answer is… you don't. You're just gonna have to take it on faith, darling." Crowley said.

Elena rolled her eyes. The last thing she needed was yet another supernatural creature calling her pet names.

"Faith? In you? A demon?" she said.

Crowley shrugged, picking up the Colt to hold it out to Sam, who was closest to him. Sam reached out hesitantly to take it and Elena rolled her eyes at them.

"This is a bad idea." She warned.

"What choice do we have?" Dean shot back.

She turned to glare at him, the first time she'd looked him full in the face. She found that he was glaring right back.

"Uh oh. Do I sense a need for couple's therapy? I know a great girl. Well she's a little… demon-possessed. But she's still great." Crowley said.

"Go fuck yourself." Elena spat, not in the mood to take any shit as she turned to glare at the demon.

Crowley shrugged and turned to look at Sam, who looked as though he wanted to ask something.

"Got a question for the class?" Crowley asked.

"You wouldn't happen to know where the devil is, by chance, would you?" Sam asked hesitantly as though he was unsure that Crowley would even answer, much less answer honestly.

"Thursday, birdies tell me, there's an appointment in Carthage, Missouri." He nodded at Sam.

Sam turned to glance at Dean before nodding. Then he turned back to Crowley and pointed the gun between his eyes, pulling the trigger. Elena rolled her eyes as nothing but a click sounded. Sam stared at the demon, surprised, as Crowley stared back impassively.

"Oh, yeah, right, you'll probably need some more ammunition." Crowley said, turning to walk to a small table with drawers.

He pulled out a leather drawstring bag.

"Oh, uh, excuse me for asking, but aren't you kind of signing your own death warrant? I mean, what happens to you if we go up against the devil and lose?" Dean questioned, watching the demon's every movement closely.

"Number one, he's going to wipe us all out anyway. Two, after you leave here, I go on an extended vacation to all points nowhere. And three, how about you don't miss, okay! Morons!" Crowley shouted, tossing the bag to Dean.

Dean caught it and Sam looked over as he opened it to reveal bullets. Elena stared at Crowley, who waved with a smirk before disappearing.

* * *

Elena blinked as she stared out of the window in the back of the Impala. Dean was driving and Sam was sitting in the passenger seat messing with the Colt.

"_You would do well not to go after Zachariah, Dean."_

She looked down at her hands, twisting them together as the words echoed in her mind.

"_I'm not gonna go after Zach, Cas. But not because you told me not to. The only reason I'm not hunting that son of a bitch down is because we're gonna go find the Colt and we're gonna use it to ice Lucifer. Then there's no reason for him to hold that threat over her head anymore cause I won't have to say yes to Michael to end it."_

When she looked out the window again, she could see the last bits of light disappearing into the horizon. They were close to Bobby's so she knew it wouldn't be much longer before she could run up to the guest room and burrow into a bunch of blankets and block out the world for at least a few minutes.

"_This sounds very idealistic, Dean. What if it doesn't work?" _

She felt her phone vibrate in her pocket and pulled it out to see a text from Caroline.

**Still fighting with D?**

She hadn't told Caroline all of the details considering that she wasn't supposed to know about the apocalypse, but the blonde vampire knew the basic story.

**Yep**

"_If it doesn't work I'm gonna shove an angel blade so far up Zachariah's ass that it'll come out of his mouth."_

**Ugh! Men!**

"_I don't think that's physically possible, Dean."_

**What's Tyler done now?**

Elena looked up to see that they were pulling up to the salvage yard. Her cheeks flushed slightly when she remembered her dream.

"_You'd be surprised, Cas. I can do a lot of things if I put my mind to it."_

**It's not Tyler. Klaus is bored and apparently he needs something to fixate on when he's bored. Apparently that something is me. **

"_Then why don't you put your mind to forgiving Elena for something that obviously involved her trying to keep you safe?"_

**Well I suppose it could be worse**.

Elena immediately climbed out of the backseat, her bag in hand because she kept it beside her for a quick escape. She didn't stop to say hello to any of the people in the house so she didn't see that Ellen and Jo Harvelle were there along with Cas. She just ran through the house and immediately disappeared upstairs.

"_That's different, Cas."_

Elena collapsed on the bed and curled up immediately, shoving the heels off and pulling the blankets over her head.

**How could it possibly be worse?**

She found herself agreeing? Nothing Zachariah could do to her could make her feel worse than this, right?

* * *

"No Bobby."

"I'm just sayin'…"

"No."

"Dean…"

"I said no!"

"And I said I don't give a damn! Stomp your ass up those stairs and bring that girl down here!"

Everyone else watched the conversation that they could only describe as a verbal tennis match with rapt attention.

"If she wants to be up there…" the older Winchester brother began.

Bobby cut him off with a groan and turned to Sam.

"Do you think you could go coax her down here?" he asked.

"I can try." Sam said with a bewildered expression.

They watched as he turned to walk upstairs.

"You do realize that you've just sacrificed him to the eternal abyss that is a teenage girl's emotions. Trust me." Ellen whispered as Sam walked up the stairs.

"You got any better ideas?" Bobby asked.

"Yeah, when he comes downstairs after failing miserably, send the other young girl in the room. They might have something more to talk about." Ellen suggested.

"What? Like Jo's insane crush on Dean?" Bobby hissed back.

Ellen shot him a severe look and he shrugged, wheeling himself away.

* * *

"What do you want, Sam?" Elena said, her voice muffled by the pillow.

"Well, it's just… we're all downstairs. And we're kinda going to confront the devil tomorrow… so…" Elena sat up and he felt relief until he caught sight of the 'are you kidding' look in her eyes.

"You want me to come to your 'we are all probably gonna die tomorrow party'?" she deadpanned.

"Dean is there." he said, cursing in his mind when a flicker of anger showed in her eyes.

"All the more reason to keep my ass in this bed." She shot back, flopping down and pulling the blankets over her head.

"Oh… okay." Sam nodded, practically running out of there in an attempt at awkwardness.

He didn't miss the triumphant look that Ellen sent Bobby when he came down empty-handed with a slightly scared expression.

"Jo?" Ellen said.

"I got it." the girl said, putting down her beer as she stood to walk to the stairs.

Dean snorted and they all turned to look at him.

"Do you have something to add to the conversation, princess?" Bobby demanded.

"If you really think that Elena is going to respond to Jo just because they're both around the same age and female, you're wrong. Cas has a better chance of luring her downstairs." He informed them, playing with a bottle cap.

"Well then maybe you could help us out." Sam snapped.

Dean gave them all a glare before stomping into the kitchen to get a beer.

* * *

A knock sounded on her door and Elena rolled her eyes, sitting up.

"Come in but know that it's hopeless." She said, glaring at the door as it opened.

She was surprised to see Jo walk in.

"Well I am pretty stubborn. You never know." The blonde said, smiling slightly.

"Hi." Elena said, feeling awkward and wondering why they sent her up of all people.

It was as if they didn't know her at all. Cas had a better chance of luring her downstairs.

"I know you and I don't know each other well but I don't want this to be awkward." Jo said.

"It's not awkward. Unless you count the fact that you have a huge crush on Dean and I'm usually the girl that's with him awkward." Elena shrugged, the words flowing out of her mouth before she could stop them.

She instantly looked apologetic.

"Wow, you're blunt." Jo nodded, sitting on the edge of the bed.

"Only when I'm emotionally drained and, if there's anything I can call the last few days, it's emotionally draining." Elena sighed, sitting up to lean against the headboard.

"I can imagine. Dean isn't exactly making it easy on you, is he?" the blonde said, her eyes wandering around the room.

"Does he make anything easy?" she mumbled, pulling her knees up to her chest and putting her chin on them.

Jo smiled slightly and looked over at her.

"Wanting to shoot him. He makes it real easy for that urge to flare right up." she said with a grin.

Elena couldn't help the slight smile that bloomed on her face as well.

"I suppose you have a point there." she admitted.

Jo cocked her head to the side.

"You honestly don't have to come down. I mean, I know you didn't need my permission. Just know that there are people that want you downstairs, including Dean even if he doesn't know it." Jo said, standing up.

Elena looked at her with gratefulness as she turned towards the door.

"Jo?" she said.

The blonde turned back to face.

"Could we be friends?" Elena asked.

"I don't see why not. It's not as though I was ever gonna give Dean Winchester a chance with me anyways. You're a braver woman than me, I'll give you that. Falling in love with a guy like that is risky business." Jo said, smiling.

Elena balked at the word and sighed.

"We haven't said it yet." She admitted.

"Said what?" Jo asked.

"The l-word. Now…" Elena trailed off. "Now we might never say it."

Jo sighed and shook her head.

"I refuse to believe that. Your story is too poetic. This is just the bump in the road that gives you a flat tire and strands you on the side of the road for a while. You'll get back on track. I'm certain of it." she assured Elena.

"You know, you're not too bad." Elena nodded.

"You're not too shabby yourself." Jo said with a grin.

Elena smiled as she turned to walk out and left her alone once more.

* * *

"You failed?" Bobby asked incredulously.

"I didn't really try that hard. But I think both of us knew that Elena was not gonna come down after our conversation as soon as I opened the door." Jo shrugged, sitting down again.

They all heard Dean mutter something that sounded similar to "told you so".

"Maybe it is the angel's turn." Ellen suggested.

They all exchanged wary looks, confusing Castiel.

"I was kidding. There is no possible way that he can make it better." Dean said, shaking his head.

"I don't know. Maybe he can." Sam shrugged.

"Is it my turn?" Cas asked.

"Go get 'em, tiger." Ellen winked at him.

"The intricacies of human emotion still somewhat baffle me. If I make it worse, I trust that I will not receive blame for this seeing as Dean warned you that I will not make it better." He said, standing up.

"We won't blame you." Jo assured him.

"Third time's a charm." Bobby said with a roll of his eyes as Cas disappeared from the room.

They heard a startled cry and Bobby sighed as Ellen smirked.

"He's off to a great start." The older Harvelle woman said, amused.

* * *

"Cas! Seriously! The stairs are not far from Bobby's study! You could have walked!" Elena ranted, pressing her hand over her thundering heart.

"I apologize." The angel said, sitting on the edge of the bed.

"You're not really going to try to convince me to come downstairs, are you?" she asked, wrapping her arms around her knees.

"That is what I was sent up here to do though I honestly have no idea what to say." He admitted.

She smiled slightly.

"Don't worry about it, Cas. I'm letting you off the hook." She assured him.

He nodded and she could see gratitude in his eyes.

"What's going on down there anyways? Obviously nothing exciting or Bobby would stop sending you guys up here." She s

"Ellen is challenging me to a drinking game. I do not know how this is a game or why it would be amusing." He said, looking confused.

Elena bit her lip, conflicted. Then she sighed and stood.

"Looks like you had the magic words all along, Cas." She said, grabbing clothing to change out of the dress that she'd been wearing.

The angel looked her with an even more confused look.

"You're coming down?" he asked.

"There's no way I'm missing you participating in a drinking game. Wait here." She said, walking into the bathroom to change.

* * *

Everyone looked up with surprise when they heard not one, but two pairs of footsteps walking down the stairs. Elena wasn't wearing any shoes so she was more difficult to hear but she did appear in the doorway walking slightly behind Cas.

"Seriously? It was him?" Bobby said, raising an eyebrow.

"Apparently I had the magic words all along." He said, nodding at them.

Elena didn't look up to make eye contact with any of them, especially not the set of green eyes that she most wanted to look at.

"I came to see how this drinking game is gonna go." she said, watching as Ellen set up two rows of five shot glasses on either side of a table that they'd dragged into the study.

Jo poured whiskey into all of the shot glasses and Ellen sat on one side and Castiel on the other. Ellen downed her glasses, only hesitating on the last one before she finally drank it. She slammed the last shotglass down upside down and looked at Cas.

"All right, big boy." She nodded, indicating that it was his turn as Elena leaned against the doorway to watch.

"Well." he sighed before picking up the first one.

Two rounds later, Castiel was downing all five of his in a row as Ellen stared at him.

"I think I'm starting to feel something." He announced, sounding exhilarated.

Jo gawked at him as Elena grinned.

"It's gotta be a trap, right?" Sam asked Dean softly as they stared at the Colt sitting on Bobby's desk.

"Sam Winchester, having trust issues with a demon. Well, better late than never." Dean replied without answering his question.

"Thank you again for your continued support." Sam snapped.

"You're welcome." Dean shot back.

They clinked their beer bottles together before drinking.

"You know, trap or no trap, we got a snowball's chance, we gotta take it, right?" Dean shrugged.

"Yeah, I suppose." Sam said.

"Besides, I'm not sure it is a trap. Check it out. I mean, Carthage is lit up like a Christmas tree with Revelation omens. And look at this." Elena turned to walk into the kitchen to grab her own beer as they discussed the devil.

When she came back in, Sam and Dean seemed to be arguing. She curled up on the couch and looked down at her bottle.

"Look, I go against Satan and screw the pooch, okay. We've lost a game piece. That we can take. But if you're there, then we are handing the devil's vessel right over to him. That's not smart." Dean said in a hushed voice.

"Since when have we ever done anything smart?" Sam scoffed.

"I'm serious, Sam." Dean fired back.

"So am I. Haven't we learned a damn thing? If we're gonna do this, we're gonna do it together. Besides, we have Elena and Cas and even if they can't take on the devil they can sure as hell get us out of there if things go bad." Sam shrugged.

They stared at each other for a long moment before both of them looked away.

"Okay. But it's a stupid frigging idea." Dean said, looking past Sam to catch sight of Cas and Ellen going at yet another round.

"Boy, talk about stupid ideas." Sam sighed.

"Good God. True, that." Dean nodded, walking into the kitchen.

Sam walked over to Elena.

"You could go try to talk to him." he suggested.

She looked up at him with a raised eyebrow.

"Yeah, cause he'll talk." She said with a roll of her eyes.

Sam sighed and pushed her up and off of the couch.

"You know I could easily overpower you, right?" Elena asked, her voice emotionless as he shoved her into the kitchen.

"I know." He agreed, stepping backwards once she was in there.

Dean turned to see her standing there and sighed.

"Wasn't my idea." She snapped before he could say anything.

"I'm gonna kill Sammy." Dean growled, shoving the fridge closed as he opened the fresh beer he pulled out.

Elena shook her head and moved past him, walking towards the door.

"If it causes you that much pain to be in a room with me, maybe I should just…" she cut off, looking down at her hands.

"You should just… what?" he said, urging her to finish the sentence.

"Nothing. Nevermind. I wouldn't do it anyways." She snapped, slamming the kitchen door open and stomping outside.

Dean didn't waste a moment before following her.

"Please, finish that sentence!" he yelled as they walked out into the dark night.

"I should just go back to Mystic Falls!" she shouted, turning to glare at him.

He stared at her for a moment.

"You wouldn't do that." he denied.

"That is exactly what I said, genius! Besides, Cas would probably drag me back. Because heaven forbid you two be without your fucking guardian!" she yelled, her frustration and anger boiling over.

"Sweetheart I have lived years without a guardian." Dean said, knowing that the extensive amount of alcohol that he'd consumed was spurring him on.

"Maybe you should tell the damn angels that!" she snapped.

"If they would listen, I would!" he argued.

"Try a little harder!" she screamed, turning to walk through the cars.

"Have you seriously not learned your lesson? There is glass on the ground!" he growled, taking off after her.

"I can heal myself if I do get a piece of glass in my foot so do me a favor and stop with the concerned crap!" she hissed over her shoulder.

"Yeah cause how dare I try to take care of you every once in a while!"

"Don't you fucking dare!" she screamed, whirling around as she stopped to glare at him with fury in her eyes.

"Why do you insist on taking care of everyone else?! Why can't you tell them what's going on and let them handle it sometimes?!" he growled, advancing on her.

"Oh so now you want to hear my side of things? Now you want me to tell you what happened with Gabriel and Zachariah? Well it's too damn late, Dean! We're confronting the devil tomorrow. Chances are one of us is gonna die! And I'm not gonna let this be that scene where we get everything off of our chests and make up like fools just because we're facing our own mortality in six hours! It's not that easy!"

"Well then what the hell do you want to do?" he yelled.

"Leave me alone!" she shouted back, turning to stomp off again.

* * *

"Where did they go?" Bobby asked as he wheeled in with a camera on his lap.

"Mommy and Daddy are fighting again." Sam sighed, sitting on the couch.

Even from where they were, they could hear Dean and Elena's raised voices from far off.

"Man that girl can bellow." Bobby said.

"Yeah." Everyone else agreed except for Castiel, who was looking slightly dazed.

* * *

When Elena reached the doors of the barn, she realized that she hadn't even meant to stomp to it. She stopped short and began to back away, bumping into a warm chest and stumbling sideways. His arms caught her but she struggled out of them.

"I thought I told you to leave me alone." She snapped, wrenching herself out of his grip.

"I didn't listen." He replied.

"Do you ever?" she huffed, turning to stare at him.

His eyes blazed through the darkness and she felt his body heat because of how close they were standing.

"I keep trying to understand why you would keep this from me. Why you would lie for so long. I honestly can't come up with a legitimate reason." He mumbled.

"If you would actually let me speak, you might hear my legitimate reason." Elena snapped, turning to whisk by him and walk back to the house.

He caught her arm and held her in place.

"Tell me." he said in a low voice.

She stared at him for a moment.

"You would have said yes." She admitted.

He looked at her with surprise.

"I'm not that…"

"Stupid?" she interrupted him, scoffing.

"It wouldn't have been stupid, not in your mind. You would have thought you were being brave, sacrificing yourself for me. Dean I'm your guardian before anything else. That is what I was literally created to be. I am supposed to protect you from every single threat that is out there. But the single greatest threat that I will ever face and have to defend you from is you. You are always going to be your own worst enemy. I am always going to have to protect you from yourself. I wasn't keeping Zachariah's threat from you because I liked it or because it brought me joy to know something that you didn't. I was keeping it from you to keep you safe because I knew you'd do something stupid if you knew. You would get yourself hurt or killed. I wasn't being an overly emotional teenage girl when I made the decision not to tell you. I was being your guardian. And no matter how angry you are with me or how much you might hate me, if I were to go back I would make the same decision over and over again."

He stared at her, shock in his eyes and his mouth slight agape. Elena pulled her arm out of his grip and turned to walk past him.

"I don't hate you." he said softly.

Elena stopped short and squeezed her lips together. She wanted to answer that she loved him. That she would do anything for him. But it couldn't come out for some reason. And she didn't want it to come out. It wasn't the right moment. It wasn't the right time to make such a claim.

"They're gonna want us back in the house." She murmured, walking past him and up to the house.

She heard him following her as they walked into the kitchen. Everyone turned to look at them with questioning gazes but none of them voiced their thoughts, seeing how drained the two looked.

"Everybody get in here! It's time for the lineup. Usual suspects in the corner." Bobby announced, breaking the silence as they walked into the study.

"Oh come on, Bobby. Nobody wants their picture taken." Ellen sighed.

"Hear, hear." Sam agreed.

"Shut up. You're drinking my beer." Bobby growled as he fiddled with the camera he had set up on a tripod.

They lined up, Elena between Cas and Dean shifting uncomfortably.

"Anyway, I'm gonna need something to remember your sorry asses by." Bobby said, rolling himself backwards to position himself between Jo and Ellen.

"Ha! Always good to have an optimist around." Ellen scoffed, rolling her eyes.

"Bobby's right. Tomorrow we hunt the devil. This is our last night on earth." Castiel said.

All of their fake grins faded. Elena felt a rough hand slide into hers and squeeze as the camera flashed.

* * *

Elena looked around with alert eyes as Dean drove the car slowly through the downtown area of Carthage. Both of the brothers were holding their phones out the window.

"You getting a signal?" Sam asked Dean.

"No, nothing. Nice and spooky." Dean replied, snapping his phone closed and waving Ellen forward, who was driving behind them.

"Place seem a little empty to you?" Ellen asked.

No one had to grace that with an answer. The town was deserted.

"We're gonna go check out the PD. You guys stay here, see if you can find anybody." Dean said.

"Okay." Ellen said.

"Elena?" Sam said.

"I'm on it." Elena sighed, climbing out of the car and grabbing her shotgun just in case.

There was also a gun in the back of her pants and a knife in her boot. They'd decided that Elena would stay with Cas just in case he needed to take her back and forth between the two groups until they came back together. She walked up to Ellen's car as she parked. Her and Jo got out but Castiel remained in the back seat. Jo knocked on the window as they waited.

"Ever heard of a door handle?" she said sarcastically.

"Of course I have." He said from behind her, startling her as Elena smirked.

Castiel wasn't paying attention to them. His gaze was on the deserted street and his brow was deeply furrowed.

"What is it, Cas?" Elena asked, concerned with the suspicious look on his face.

"This town's not empty." He replied, looking over at her. "Reapers." He explained.

"Reapers? As in more than one?" Ellen asked.

"They only gather like this at times of great catastrophe. Chicago Fire, San Francisco Quake, Pompeii." He explained.

"All right. That's not creepy at all." Elena sighed.

"Their senses are too dull to percieve them but…" Cas reached out and touched Elena's hand.

She gasped when she suddenly saw dozens of men standing in the street all looking up at one building.

"I take it back. This is very creepy." Elena said.

She turned to see Cas squinting at her.

"What?" she asked.

"I had a hunch that Gabriel gave you some of his essence but I did not think it to be so powerful. He poured part of himself into you." he said, making Elena's eyes widen.

"Excuse me?" Ellen said, raising an eyebrow.

"It's a long story." Elena said, not looking away from Cas.

"Longer than you being a guardian? Because that's pretty long." Ellen said.

"It goes back a thousand years, so yeah, pretty long." Elena said, finally looking back at her.

"Oh." The older Harvelle woman said, nodding.

"Excuse me, I need to find out why they're here." Cas said, not letting go of Elena's hand as he pulled her forward.

"We're supposed to stay with Ellen and Jo, Cas." Elena argued, following him.

He turned to look into the eyes of a reaper. The old man didn't even acknowledge that he was standing there.

"These reapers hold the answer to why Lucifer is in Carthage." He said, looking up at the building where a reaper was staring down at them.

The man suddenly turned and walked off, the first of the reapers to show any sign of life.

"You should stay with the Harvelles. I will return." Cas said, letting go of her hand and cutting off her ability to see the reapers.

He disappeared and she looked up to see that he was standing in the same window that the reaper had just been in. He nodded at her before turning to walk off.

Elena turned to talk to Ellen and Jo but she was suddenly staring down at the street from the window.

"What the hell?" she muttered, turning to see Cas walking down the hallway quietly.

"Hello, brother." she heard a voice say before a white light blinded their vision.

* * *

"Station's empty." Dean said as they met in the town square.

"So's everything else." Jo replied.

"Have you seen Cas and Elena?" Ellen asked, looking concerned.

"What? They were with you." Sam said, his eyes wide as he looked at Dean and then back at Ellen.

"Nope. Cas went after the reapers and Elena just disappeared right after he did." Ellen explained.

"Reapers?" Dean said quickly.

"He saw reapers? Where?" Sam demanded.

"Well, kind of everywhere." Jo shrugged.

"And Elena went with him? She was supposed to stay with you, protect you." Dean said, sounding frustrated.

"No, Elena disappeared after Cas. She was turning to walk to us. I'm not sure that she really had much of a choice." Ellen explained.

Dean and Sam looked at each other warily.

* * *

Elena ran into the room to see Castiel standing in th middle of a ring of holy fire.

"Elena?" he said, confused at why she was there.

"Cas." She said, darting forward to find a way to get him out.

Her body was suddenly frozen in its spot. Cas' eyes flickered past her and lit up with recognition.

"Lucifer." He said.

Elena's eyes widened and she turned her head to see a man in the shadows.

"So I take it you're here with the Winchesters." Lucifer said, his arms crossed over his chest as he walked against the wall.

"We came alone." Cas said quickly, his eyes narrowed.

"Loyalty. Such a nice quality to see in this day and age. Castiel, right? Castiel. I'm told you came here in an automobile." Lucifer said in an amused voice.

"Yes." He nodded, resigned that he could not fool the devil.

"What was that like?" Lucifer questioned.

Cas looked around, his eyes wide as he searched for an escape.

"Um. Slow. Confining." He explained as Elena kept her eyes on the devil.

He finally stepped out of the shadows and her eyes widened. This was the same man she saw in her apocalyptic dream in Mystic Falls right after Esther was killed. How could she possibly have known what he was going to look like?

"What a peculiar thing you are." Lucifer murmured.

Elena squinted at his face and saw burns on his forehead and cheek. His vessel looked less than healthy, pale and near-death.

"What's wrong with your vessel?" Cas asked, noticing the same thing.

"Yes. Um. Nick is wearing a bit thin, I'm afraid. He can't contain me forever, so…" Lucifer shrugged, trailing off.

"You…" Cas stepped forward before stopping, the fire separating him from getting in Lucifer's face. "You are not taking Sam Winchester. I won't let you." he snapped.

"Castiel. I don't understand why you're fighting me, of all the angels." Lucifer said with a confused look.

"You really have to ask?" Cas asked.

"I rebelled, I was cast out. You rebelled, you were cast out. Almost all of heaven wants to see me dead, and if they succeed, guess what? You're their new public enemy number one. We're on the same side, like it or not, so why not just serve your own best interests? Which in this case just happen to be mine?" Lucifer asked, spreading his arms out in a welcoming motion.

Elena let her eyes flicker between the two, lost on what to say in this situation. She was looking at the devil. The real devil. The actual manifestation of Satan himself.

"I'll die first." Castiel spat.

Lucifer simply smirked before turning to Elena.

"I'm so sorry. My manners are lacking these days. I've heard it happens after being trapped in a cage by your own brothers. You are the lovely Elena." he said, looking her up and down.

She simply glared at him.

"I have nothing to say to you." she said, finally finding her voice.

"Don't worry. I'll soon change that." he said, smiling as he approached her.

* * *

"Well, this is great, been in town twenty minutes and already lost the angel and the guardian up our sleeve." Dean grumbled as they walked down the street with their weapons in hand.

"You think, uh, you think Lucifer got them?" Sam asked hesitantly.

"I don't know what else to think." Dean sighed, worry filling his mind more than he'd like to admit.

"There you are." A voice said behind them.

Everyone turned face the new threat. Dean and Sam immediately recognized her. She was in the same vessel as she was in when she tried to get a demon-possessed Bobby to kill Dean.

"Meg." Sam sighed.

"Shouldn't have come here, boys." She said with a smirk, looking thrilled that they were there despite her words.

"Hell, I could say the same thing for you." Dean said, raising the Colt to point it at her.

"Didn't come here alone, Deano." The demon informed him.

Something splashed in a puddle near her feet and a growl filled the air. Sam, Ellen, and Jo whirled around in circled looking for the source of the noise. Dean didn't move a muscle, staring at the empty spot next to Meg while trying to pretend that he wasn't terrified and having flashbacks to the last time he faced one of these things.

"Hellhounds." He said, tilting his head up.

"Yeah, Dean. Your favorite. Come on, boys. My father wants to see you." Meg said, sounding triumphant.

"I think we'll pass, thanks." Sam said instantly, not caring what else she had to say.

"Your call. You can make this easy or you can make it really, really hard. And you don't have your precious guardian here to protect you." She said, obviously hoping that they would go for the second option as it meant more bloodshed for her.

Dean looked back and Ellen nodded at him.

"When have you known us to ever make anything easy?" he said as he turned back.

Meg shook her head as he shifted his aim and fired. Blood spurted from the hellhound that he hit.

"Run!" Sam shouted and they turned to take off.

A hellhound immediately tackled Dean and Jo looked back with wide eyes.

"Dean!" She yelled, running back towards him.

"Jo, stay back!" he shouted, turning to fight off the thing.

Jo fired her shotgun in Dean's direction and Ellen and Sam finally stopped, turning to see what was happening. Jo kept firing, knocking the hellhound further back away from Dean. Suddenly she cried out when another hound leapt at her, digging its claws into her side and ripping her skin easily. She cried out and fell to the ground as Sam and Ellen ran up.

"No!" Ellen screamed as they started firing at the hellhounds as well.

Dean jumped up and scooped Jo into his arms, running past Sam and Ellen. They turned to follow him as he ran to the nearest store, a hardware store. Ellen ran ahead of him to open the door and Sam remained a little behind them to keep shooting. Once Sam was inside, he shut and locked the door. Dean leaned Jo against the counter as she whimpered in pain and blood soaked through her shirt and pants.

"Okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, breathe now…" Ellen said, brushing her hair back as Dean helped Sam chain the doors shut.

"Boys, need some help here!" She shouted.

* * *

"So you are the infamous guardian that I've heard my brothers complaining about so much." Lucifer said as he circled her.

"Well your brothers are kind of whiny." Elena replied, not liking that she was still rooted to the ground where she stood.

He simply smirked as he stood in front of her again. Elena looked over his shoulder to see Castiel looking concerned.

"Are you going to kill me?" she asked, not sounding afraid or even emotional.

Her voice held genuine interest.

"Of course not. Why would I want to do something like that?" Lucifer asked.

"I don't know… cause you're the devil? An evil, sadistic bastard? Any of this ring a bell?" Elena asked, wondering why on earth she decided that it was a good idea to be sassy with Lucifer.

He let out a chuckle.

"No, I have every reason for wanting you alive as much as I want Castiel alive. You're rebellious. You don't take any crap from my brothers. You are willing to do whatever it takes to stick it to them." Lucifer said.

"No, I'm willing to do whatever it takes to protect the people I love." Elena shot back, glaring at him.

"Well I can help you, if you want." He shrugged, turning to walk around the fire circle.

"And in return you want my soul? No thanks." She snapped.

"No, not your soul. Just your loyalty. I know what Zachariah has threatened to do. I have the power to stop him, if you join me. You can keep going about your life, protecting the Winchesters and all that. I'll even keep your family and friends safe from anyone who seeks to harm them. I can make your life easier than you've ever known. In return for your loyalty, I promise to give Sam back to you whole and undamaged after I'm done with him. I'll even give you Dean back as long as Michael doesn't destroy him. And when it's all over and I have control of this beautiful planet, you will be most beloved. You and the Winchesters." Lucifer offered.

Elena stared at him, her lips pursed. She should have known that he would work like this. He could get in her head and figure out what she wanted most. Sam and Dean safe. Her family safe. That was about it. Her eyes flickered to Cas and he looked afraid, as though he thought she would say yes. Lucifer stared at her, waiting for her answer. She smirked at him and she knew that he thought he had her.

"I'll pass." She said.

His brow furrowed and he shook his head.

"Tell you what, I'll give you some time to think. Whenever you get tired of Zachariah running the show, I'll be waiting on you."

"How generous of you." Elena replied dryly.

"I like you, Elena. I don't want to hurt you. I want you to live and flourish at my side. I would never betray you as my brother did." Lucifer informed her.

"I would hardly call Zachariah's actions a betrayal considering that I never trusted him in the first place." she said.

"I wasn't talking about Zachariah. You did trust dear Gabriel, didn't you?" Lucifer asked.

She narrowed her eyes at him.

"I'm not talking about this with you." Elena snapped.

"He betrayed you. He told Dean about your little secret. He's the reason that you and the elder Winchester's relationship is hanging on a thread." Lucifer shrugged.

Elena bit her lip hard, drawing blood.

"Don't listen to him, Elena. He's attempting to manipulate you." Cas said.

Lucifer smirked and glanced back at Cas, shrugging before turning to her.

"Is anything I'm saying untrue?" he asked.

"No." she said hoarsely, looking up at him. "You're telling the truth."

Castiel stared at her with wide eyes.

"I'm glad you see it that way, Elena." Lucifer said, still smirking.

"Don't start preening, Lucy. I said you were telling the truth, which you were, not that I was on your side." She snapped, much to Cas' relief.

Lucifer's eyes narrowed at her.

"You've got quite the mouth on you." he said in a dark voice.

"So I've heard. It hasn't failed me yet." She replied.

* * *

"Gonna be all right." Ellen said as she finished patching Jo up.

Sam handed a bowl of water to her and she nodded at him.

"Thank you." she said.

Sam nodded back and walked over to Dean, who was fiddling with an electronic device.

"How's she holding up?" Dean asked, glancing over at Jo.

Sam didn't say anything and a long pause of silence filled the room.

"Salt lines are holding up?" Sam asked, dropping onto the floor next to him.

"Safe for now." Dean nodded.

"Safer. Trapped like rats." Sam corrected him.

"Hey, you heard Meg. Her father's here. This is our one shot, Sammy. We gotta take it, no matter what." Dean said, looking at him.

He turned back to the device and continued to work on it as no one spoke besides Ellen whispering reassurances to Jo.

"Here we go." Dean said triumphantly.

"Sam, some help here, please?" Ellen asked as Dean's gadget squealed to life.

"K C 5 Fox Delta Oscar, come in." Dean said into the radio.

A few moments of crackling silence came over the radio.

"K C 5 Fox Delta Oscar, go ahead." Bobby's voice said.

"Bobby, it's Dean. We got problems." He said, looking over at Jo.

"It's okay, boy. That's why I'm here." Bobby assured him after a moment of silence "Is everyone all right?"

"No. It's… it's… it's Jo. Bobby, it's pretty bad." Dean stammered, panic finally filling his voice.

"Okay. Copy that. So now we figure out what we do next." Bobby said.

"Bobby, I don't think she's…" Dean broke off, emotion filling his voice.

"I said, what do we do next, Dean?" Bobby said, trying to be strong for him.

Dean sighed, leaning his head forward on his hand.

"Right. Okay, right." he said, swallowing his emotion and adopting a hardened expression.

"Now, tell me what you got." Bobby said.

"Cas and Elena disappeared. Apparently there were a bunch of reapers around and Cas went to investigate. Elena just disappeared. We think…" Dean cut off. "… we think that Lucifer might have them."

Crackling filled the air and Dean knew that Bobby was sighing heavily.

"Before he went missing, did Cas say how many reapers?" the older hunter questioned.

"I don't… he said a lot of things, I guess. Does the number matter? I said that we think the devil has Elena." Dean said, sounding frustrated.

"I heard you, Dean. But the devil's in the details." Bobby said, sounding sympathetic but unwilling to cater to Dean's panic.

Dean started when Ellen tapped on his shoulder and gestured to the radio. He held the mouthpiece up to her.

"Bobby, it's Ellen. The way he was looking, the number of places Castiel's eyes went, I'd say we're talking over a dozen reapers, probably more." She explained.

"I don't like the sound of that." Bobby said.

"Nobody likes the sound of that, Bobby, but what… wh… what does that sound like?" Dean asked.

"It sounds like death, son. I think Satan's in town to work a ritual." Bobby said. "I think he's planning to unleash Death."

"You mean, like, as in this dude and taxes are the only sure thing?" Dean asked, looking up at Ellen with wide eyes.

"As in Death. The horseman. The pale rider in the flesh." Bobby corrected him.

"Unleash? I mean, hasn't Death been tromping all over the place? Hell, I've died several times myself." Dean said.

"Not this guy. This is… this is the angel of death. Big daddy reaper. They keep this guy chained in a box six hundred feet under. Last time they hauled him up, Noah was building a boat. That's why the place is crawling with reapers. They're waiting on the big boss to show." Bobby explained.

"You have any other good news?" Ellen sighed, looking back at Jo who was growing paler by the second.

"In a manner of speaking I been researching Carthage since you've been gone, trying to suss out what the devil might want there. What you just said drops the last piece of the puzzle in place. The angel of death must be brought into this world at midnight through a place of awful carnage. Now, back during the Civil War, there was a battle in Carthage. A battle so intense the soldiers called it the Battle of Hellhole." Bobby informed them.

"Where'd the massacre go down?" Dean questioned.

"On the land of William Jasper's farm." Bobby replied.

* * *

Lucifer was leaning against the wall now just letting his eyes go back and forth between Elena and Castiel, who were staring at each other trying to communicate without speaking. All of their eyes flickered to the door when another person walked in. Elena immediately recognized her as the demon who tried to kill Dean just after Lucifer was released, Meg.

"I got the Winchesters pinned down. For now, at least. What should I do with them?" she said, her eyes flickering to Elena.

"Leave them alone." Lucifer said simply, not moving from where he was leaning against the wall.

"I.. I'm sorry, but are you sure? Shouldn't we…" Meg stammered.

"Trust me, child. Everything happens for a reason." He said, walking forward to stroke her face.

Castiel's eyes flickered upward and Elena looked behind her to see a pipe bolted to the wall.

"Well, Castiel, Elena, you have some time. Time to change your mind?" Lucifer asked, turning back to them as Meg glanced between the two.

"Not happening." They both said at the same time.

"That's a shame." He sighed.

He turned to Meg.

"I'm letting the girl go. Keep Castiel here." He said before snapping his fingers.

Elena looked around to see that she was standing on the street again. This time she was looking at a hardware store. She could hear distant growling and wondered what could possibly be making that noise.

* * *

"That's my girl, you're okay, honey…" Ellen murmured, holding Jo's head in her lap.

Sam and Dean were standing a few feet away.

"Now we know where the devil's gonna be, we know when, and we have the Colt." Dean said.

"Yeah. We just have to get past eight or so hellhounds and get to the farm by midnight." Sam scoffed, shaking his head.

"Yeah, and that's after we get Jo and Ellen the hell out of town." Dean nodded, agreeing with his skepticism that they would pull it off.

"All without Elena and Cas cause we have no idea where they are. Won't be easy." Sam said.

"Stretcher?" Dean asked.

"I'll see what we got." Sam nodded, turning to see what was in the store.

"Stop. Guys, stop." Jo said weakly as Ellen looked between her and the brothers. "Can we, uh, be realistic about this, please?"

Dean and Sam walked over, squatting next to her.

"Uh! I can't move my legs. I can't be moved. My guts are being held in by an ace bandage. We gotta… we gotta get our priorities straight here." She choked out.

Dean and Sam exchanged a hesitant look.

"Number one, I'm not going anywhere." Jo sighed.

"Joanna Beth, you stop talking like that." Ellen berated her, shaking her head.

"Mom. I can't fight. I can't walk. But I can do something. We got propane, wiring, rock salt, iron nails, everything we need."Jo said, looking at her with wide eyes.

"Everything we need?" Sam questioned.

"To build a bomb, Sam." Jo said, sounding exhausted.

"No. Jo, no." Dean said, shaking his head stubbornly.

"You got another plan? You got any other plan? Those are hellhounds out there, Dean. They've got all of our scents. Those bitches will never stop coming after you. We let the dogs in, you guys hit the roof, make a break for the building next over. I can wait here with my finger on the button, rip those mutts a new one. Or at least get you a few minutes' head start, anyway." Jo explained.

"No, I… I won't let you." Ellen said, tears filling her eyes.

"This is why we're here, right?" Jo shrugged, looking sad as well.

Ellen shook her head, tears running down her face.

"If I can get us a shot on the devil… Dean, we have to take it." the blonde said, turning to look at Dean.

"No!" Ellen exclaimed, looking up at Dean. "That's not…"

"Mom. This might literally be your last chance to treat me like an adult. Might wanna take it?" Jo said, smiling.

Ellen replied by sobbing and taking her hand, squeezing it.

"You heard her. Get to work." She snapped at the boys.

The two women watched as Dean and Sam gathered the materials and assembled the bombs, filling them with nails and rock salt for shrapnel. They looked out to see that the sun was beginning to set. Sam bent down next to Jo and took her head, his eyes filled with sadness and regret. Dean strung the wire to the button and handed it to Jo.

"Okay, this is it. I'll see you on the other side. Probably sooner than later." He said, trying not to become emotional.

"Make it later." She choked out.

He leaned down and kissed her forehead.

"Stop being such an idiot with Elena. You love her. I can see it. Even though I'm jealous that she managed to bag you. You're… a winner, Dean Winchester." Jo said with a grin, tears sliding down her cheeks.

Ellen came up and sat next to Jo, who turned to look at her. The older Harvelle woman smiled and Jo shook her head.

"Mom, no." Jo whispered.

"Somebody's gotta let them in. Like you said, you're not moving. You got me, Jo. And you're right, this is important." Ellen said, trying to stay strong.

Jo nodded slowly as Sam and Dean stood up.

"But I will not leave you here alone." Ellen said.

"Dean…" Sam began.

"Get going now, boys." Ellen said, turning to look at them.

"Ellen…" Dean began.

"I said go." She snapped, narrowing her eyes at them.

Sam looked at Dean hesitantly before they turned to walk away.

"And Dean?" Ellen said.

Dean turned to look back at her.

"Kick it in the ass. Don't miss." She instructed him.

Dean nodded and they headed for their exit. Ellen stood to unchain the doors, sweeping away the salt line and opening the propane tanks before sitting next to Jo and hugging her.

"I will always love you, baby." She said as they heard distant growling.

* * *

Sam and Dean ran across a few roofs before jumping onto the ground. When they saw a figure running towards them, they both lifted their guns to point at the person.

"It's me." they sighed with relief when they heard Elena's voice.

She stopped in front of them and looked confused.

"Where were you?" Sam asked.

"I met Lucifer. He's a charmer. Where are Jo and Ellen?" she asked, looking around.

Sam and Dean exchanged a look and she stared at them.

"Guys?" she said, fearing the answer.

"Hellhounds attacked us. One of 'em got Jo. She… uh, she wasn't gonna survive. They're luring the hounds into the hardware store." Dean said, pointing backwards.

"And then?" Elena said.

"The place is rigged with bombs. They're gonna blow it up." Sam sighed.

Elena stared between them.

"You've got to be kidding me." she said.

"It's the best chance we got to get rid of those things." Dean said.

"No, not anymore. I'm the best chance we got." Elena said, shaking her head.

She refused to let Ellen and Jo die. Not when there was a chance to save them.

"What are you gonna do?" Dean demanded as she turned to run to the store.

"Go find the damn devil! And Cas!" she yelled back.

Dean launched forward and caught her arm.

"This is stupid. You'll get yourself killed." He growled, looking deep into her eyes.

"I didn't ask for your permission, Dean. I'm not gonna let Ellen and Jo die when I have a chance to stop it. Besides, I have the best protection ever. I have beings who want me to see the apocalypse through to the end. They're not gonna let me die. Trust me." Elena said convincingly.

"Because I have every reason to do that." Dean scoffed.

Elena shoved him off, narrowing her eyes at him.

"I'm not giving you a choice. You try to stop me and I'll kick your stubborn ass into next week. Now go." she snapped, controlling the overwhelming urge to hit Dean.

They watched as she turned to run off.

"Dean, she's right. We have to go. We can stop this." Sam said.

"What if she dies?" Dean said, turning to look at him.

"She won't." Sam said confidently.

* * *

"Honey?" Ellen looked down at Jo, who was completely still.

Her eyes were glassy.

"Jo…" she sobbed, pulling her head against her chest.

"It's okay, it's okay." She cried, kissing her on the head.

"That's my good girl."

Suddenly she heard footsteps and she looked around, alarmed. Elena ran around the corner.

"You shouldn't be in here." She hissed, watching as the young woman ran up to them.

"No, this is exactly where I should be." Elena said, kneeling in front of them.

Her eyes flickered over Jo and a flash of pain went through them.

"She's dead." Ellen cried softly, looking down at her lifeless daughter.

Elena looked up at her with shining eyes.

"Not for long." She said, pushing her sleeves up.

"You can't, Elena. You can't heal anyone but those boys! They need you! Get your ass out of here!" Ellen said, trying to shove her away.

"Stop distracting me!" Elena snapped back, closing her eyes as she concentrated.

Her hands went to the bandage on Jo's side. Ellen watched with terrified eyes as the growling grew nearer.

"Elena…" she began to argue again.

"Shut up!" the young woman shouted, shaking her hands out.

"Work dammit!" she screamed frustratingly.

"Elena get the hell out of here!" Ellen yelled.

Suddenly a blinding white light filled their vision as the doors slammed open. It took Ellen a moment to realize that the light was coming from Elena's hands and flowing into Jo's body. She looked at the girl's face and saw that her eyes were wide-open and bright blue. Her hair blew back out of her face and she looked ethereal. Growling filled the air at the same time as the white light faded and Jo let out a heavy gasp.

"Jo!" Ellen cried.

"Mom?"

"Time to go." Elena said, trying to yank them up without dwelling on what she'd just done.

They turned in time for warm breath from one of the hellhounds to wash over their faces.

"Damn." Elena murmured, frozen in place.

"What do we do?" Ellen said, panicked.

"I don't know. I can't… I can't get us out of here." Elena said, panicking as well.

They all stood there perfectly still as the hellhounds filled the hardware store around them.

Elena looked up at the ceiling, sending all of her desperation to her voice.

"I need help." She whimpered.

Nothing happened. Elena bit her lip and sighed, pulling them all up to a standing position as the hellhounds surrounded them.

"Ellen… when I say three, press the button, okay?" she said in a hesitant voice.

"Elena…" Ellen began.

"They'll keep hunting Sam and Dean if we don't." she said, looking at the older woman with wide eyes.

"Do it, Mom. We have to give them their best chance." Jo said.

Ellen looked at the two younger girls before nodding. They squeezed each other's hands tightly.

"One…" Elena whispered, squeezing her eyes shut and picturing Dean.

She loved him. She loved him and she would never get a chance to say it.

"Two…"

She pictured her friends and family from Mystic Falls next. All of those people that she still loved no matter what. Her brother, who would probably never know what happened to her, that she died trying to save the world.

"Three." She finished.

Ellen pressed her thumb down on the button and they felt a rush of heat as they squeezed their eyes shut tightly. Eelna suddenly felt a hand grasp her shoulder and her eyes flew open. They all looked around to see that they were standing on the street.

"What the…" Ellen said.

They all turned to see the hardware store behind them, a hole blown through the roof and the building stripped down to its bones as it burned.

"That would be me." a voice said from behind them.

They turned to see who the voice belonged to and were met with a smirking face with amused eyes. Elena narrowed her eyes at him, her mouth forming a thin line.

"Oh don't glare at me like that. You called me." Gabriel shrugged, walking forward.

* * *

Sam and Dean remained crouched down as they snuck through the bushes surrounding the field. They looked through them to see dozens of men standing in the field staring at something that was out of sight to them.

"Guess we know what happened to some of the townspeople." Dean said.

"Okay." Sam sighed.

"Okay." Dean repeated.

"Last words?" the younger brother asked.

They looked at each other for a moment.

"I think I'm good." Dean said.

"Yeah. Me too." Sam nodded.

"Here goes nothing." Dean said as they moved forward out of the bushes.

"Hey!" Sam shouted, approaching the man who was filling a hole with a shovel.

He was holding a shotgun at the ready. Lucifer turned, dropping the shovel and wiping his hands off on his jeans.

"You wanted to see me?" Sam demanded.

"Oh, Sam, you don't need that gun here. You know I'd never hurt you. Not really." Lucifer said with a smirk.

"Yeah? Well, I'd hurt you." Lucifer turned to see Dean pointing the Colt at him, point-blank to the forehead.

"So suck it." he said before firing. Lucifer collapsed and none of the men surrounding them did a thing. Dean and Sam watched the corpse for a minute before he inhaled and shifted positions.

"Owww!" Lucifer complained, standing up.

Sam stared at him, horrified, as he turned to Dean.

"Where did you get that?" he demanded, referring to the gun.

He didn't wait for an answer, punching Dean so hard that he flew into a tree. Sam watched as he fell to the ground before turning back to Lucifer.

"Now, where were we?" the devil asked.

* * *

Castiel was still stuck in the fire ring. Meg was watching him with a bored expression as the pipe on the wall was spinning with the force that he was using to dislodge it.

"You seem pleased." He said, trying to distract her.

"We're gonna win. Can you feel it? You cloud-hopping pansies lost the whole damn universe. Lucifer's gonna take over heaven. We're going to heaven, Clarence." Meg said triumphantly.

"Strange, because I heard a different theory from a demon named Crowley." He said, looking straight at her.

"You don't know Crowley." Meg scoffed skeptically.

"He believes Lucifer is just using demons to achieve an end, and that, once he does, he'll destroy you all." He informed her.

"You're wrong. Lucifer is the father of our race. Our creator. Your god may be a deadbeat. Mine… mine walks the earth." Meg said, walking forward with spread arms.

Castiel finally got the pipe free of the wall and it flew forward, slamming into Meg and throwing her through the fire into his arms. He pressed his palm to her forehead, concentrating. But nothing happened. The demon laughed tauntingly.

"You can't gank demons, can you? You're cut off from the home office and you ain't got the juice. So what can you do, you impotent sap?" she asked, grinning.

"I can do this."

Cas leaned closer as if to kiss her before throwing her down into the fire face down. She screamed as he walked across her back and out of the room.

* * *

"Take them back to Bobby's." Elena said to Gabriel as she turned to run off.

"Wait, we can still help!" Jo said.

Elena stopped and turned to look at her.

"You've already died, Jo. We can't have that happening again. I just need to go find Sam and Dean and Cas and get us all out of here." She said pleadingly.

"And what makes you think I'm gonna do what you tell me?" Gabriel asked.

"Because you wouldn't have saved my life just now and all of the thousands of times that you've saved it before if you didn't care at least a little bit. So please, Gabriel, do this for me." she said pleadingly.

He stared at her for a moment before smirking.

"Only because you asked nicely." He said, turning around to touch Jo and Ellen's forehead.

Elena sighed with relief when she heard the fluttering of wings and turned, running off in the direction that her instincts told her to. Suddenly someone appeared in front of her and grabbed her as she ran.

"Cas, you got away." She breathed with relief.

"I know where they are." He said before taking her hand in his and disappearing with her.

* * *

"Don't feel too bad, Sam. There's only five things in all of creation that that gun can't kill, and I just happen to be one of them. But if you give me a minute, I'm almost done." Lucifer said, picking up the shovel and continuing to move the dirt.

Sam ran over to Dean and checked his pulse. When he turned, he saw Lucifer leaning onto the shovel.

"You know, I don't suppose you'd just say yes here and now?" he asked, sounding hopeful.

Sam stood up, glaring at him.

"End this whole tiresome discussion? That's crazy, right?" he shrugged.

"It's never gonna happen!" Sam snapped.

Lucifer smirked before going back to filling his hole.

"Oh, I don't know, Sam. I think it will. I think it'll happen soon. Within six months. And I think it'll happen in Detroit." He informed him as he worked.

"You listen to me, you son of a bitch. I'm gonna kill you myself, you understand me? I'm going to rip your heart out!" Sam growled.

"That's good, Sam. You keep fanning that fire in your belly. All that pent-up rage. I'm gonna need it." he nodded, sounding unconcerned.

Sam calmed down visibly and looked around at the men who were all still in some kind of trance.

"What did you do? What did you do to this town?" he demanded.

"Oh, I was very generous with this town. One demon for every able-bodied man." Lucifer said.

"And the rest of them?" Sam asked, turning to him.

Lucifer paused and nodded down at the hole.

"In there. I know, it's awful, but these horsemen are so demanding. So it was women and children first. I know what you must think of me, Sam. But I have to do this. I have to. You of all people should understand." He said, looking at the younger Winchester.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Sam demanded.

Lucifer dropped the shovel and faced him.

"I was a son. A brother, like you, a younger brother, and I had an older brother who I loved. Idolized, in fact. And one day I went to him and I begged him to stand with me, and Michael… Michael turned on me. Called me a freak. A monster. And then he beat me down. All because I was different. Because I had a mind of my own. Tell me something, Sam. Any of this sound familiar?"

Sam glared at him, unwilling to play his game.

"Anyway. You'll have to excuse me. Midnight is calling and I have a ritual to finish. Don't go anywhere. Not that you could if you would." Lucifer said, turning back to his hole.

Sam walked to Dean and knelt beside his unconscious form as Lucifer began chanting in Latin. Then he turned to his demons.

"Now repeat after me. We offer up our lives, blood, souls…" he said.

Dean stirred, his eyes fluttering.

"We offer up our lives, blood, souls…" the demons repeated.

"… to complete this tribute." Lucifer said.

"… to complete this tribute." They repeated as Sam helped Dean stand up.

One by one the demons all flashed gold and fell over, dead. Sam and Dean stared with shock as Lucifer looked over at them.

"What? They're just demons." He shrugged.

The ground began to rumble as Lucifer stood over the mass grave. Sam stared at Lucifer as Dean glanced between them. Suddenly a hand clamped on each of their shoulders. They turned to see Castiel and Elena standing there. Cas held a finger to his lips before holding up his hand where Elena was clasping it. She reached out and took Sam's hand, who took put his hand on Dean's shoulder. Lucifer looked back moments later to see that they were gone. He didn't react, instead turning to walk forward as the rumbling got more intense.

"Oh, hello, Death." He said with a smirk.

* * *

Dean and Sam looked around as they appeared next to the Impala at Bobby's house, strangely enough. It still amazed them that Cas could transport an entire car.

"Ellen and Jo?" Dean asked, looking at Elena.

"They're here." Elena explained.

"How is Jo?" Sam asked.

The door suddenly slammed open and Ellen came running out along with a completely healthy looking Jo answering their question.

"Thank God you boys are okay." Ellen said, embracing both Sam and Dean.

They were looking at Jo with shocked looks so they didn't see the third person that walked out of the house. Elena stared up at him, surprised that Gabriel was still there.

"They insisted on a drink, saying I saved your lives." He shrugged with a smirk as he walked down the steps to approach the group.

Dean and Sam turned at his voice to glare at him.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Dean demanded, his voice tight with anger.

A hand flew out and smacked him over the head.

"You be nice, Dean Winchester! He saved our lives! We were cornered by those hounds, all three of us. We were fixing to blow ourselves up until he showed up and whisked us on out of there." Ellen berated Dean, making him look a little bit sheepish.

He settled for simply glowering at Gabriel instead of demanding that he leave.

"Did you heal Jo?" Sam asked, staring at Gabriel warily.

"No." Ellen answered, her eyes trained on Elena.

Elena looked down at her shoes, not knowing what to do or say in this situation. She was shocked when Ellen suddenly yanked her into a hug.

"I am never gonna stop being grateful to you, you hear?" she murmured.

Elena slowly wrapped her hands around the other woman's torso.

"I was just… you know…" she shrugged.

"You gave me my daughter back." Ellen said, pulling away and looking at Elena with tears shining in her eyes. "Thank you."

Elena flushed and nodded.

"You're welcome." She replied.

Jo nodded at her when their eyes met and Elena smiled at her.

"That was you." she heard Cas breath and she turned to look at them, avoiding the shocked gazes of the Winchester brothers.

"What? Giving off that big burst of angelic energy? Of course it was." Gabriel said, smirking at Elena.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"We all felt it, cupcake. You don't exude that kinda power without attracting some attention."

"Gabriel, that was more power than the average guardian should be giving off." Cas said, turning his attention on his brother.

"Cheer up, Cas. This is good news. She's growing up on us." Gabriel said, pretending to wipe a fake tear from his eye.

"We're going to have to talk about this." Cas said seriously.

Gabriel rolled his eyes.

"Would you all get in here? I wanna make sure you're alive too!" Bobby's voice floated out of the front door.

They all smiled, unable to do anything else as they tromped up the stairs. Bobby immediately yanked Dean and Sam down to his level, clutching at them tightly for a moment before letting go. Then he rolled up to Elena and shook his head at her, taking his hand.

"You are never gonna stop saving our asses, are you?" he said, his voice full of emotion.

"I wouldn't count on it." Elena said with a grin.

He shook his head again and yanked her down to hug her tight as he could.

"I count these boys as my sons. Have for a long time now. But when I look at you, I feel the same as when I look at them. You may not like it, but you're like a daughter to me, Elena Gilbert." He said.

She bit back tears that threatened to overtake her at his words.

"Thank you, Bobby." She said, losing her grip on her emotions as a few tears slipped out of her eyes.

She stood back up and smiled down at him before turning. Dean was nowhere to be seen and she instantly looked around for him.

"He's in the kitchen getting us all beer." Ellen informed her. "Why don't you go help him?"

Elena nodded and turned to walk into the kitchen. She shoved her hands in her back pocket as she hovered in the middle of it. Dean turned around with his hands full of beer. He saw her and he nodded, putting all of the beer on the counter. He walked towards her slowly.

"You, uh… you saved Jo." He said, standing about a foot away from her.

"Yeah… I guess." She shrugged.

His eyes stared deep into hers as she looked up at him, emotion filling them.

"You save us all the time."

"I'm not sorry for what I did to keep you safe, Dean. I'm sorry that it hurt you when you found out. I'm sorry that I had to lie to you to keep you safe." Elena said, stepping forward.

"I'm not even mad about that. I don't know that I ever was." he sighed.

"I fucked up. I was so mad that you were willing to sacrifice yourself for me… I saw red." He sighed.

"I know." She nodded.

He ran his fingers through his short hair.

"I'm sorry." He said softly.

Elena smiled slightly.

"I know." She nodded.

He looked up at her.

"I can't let them take you from me." Dean said, shaking his head.

Elena stepped right up to him and put her hands on his cheeks, not even caring about the distance they'd put between themselves in the last few days.

"Shh." She murmured, stroking his cheek softly.

"Everyone got out alive tonight. Let's celebrate that at least for a few hours. We'll worry about everything else later." She assured him.

He nodded as his arms wrapped around her and squeezed her to him. Elena smiled and held him close as well.

"I'm still not forgiving that angelic bastard." He said stubbornly.

She laughed and pulled away, grinning up at him.

"No one said you had to and neither am I." Elena assured him.

Dean stared down at her for a moment, putting his hand on her cheek.

"I don't know what I'd do if I lost you." he whispered.

She simply smiled at him and leaned up on her toes, kissing him softly.

"We'll figure something out." she murmured against his lips.

He sighed and pulled her even closer, turning them so that he could pick her up and put her on the counter. Their kisses turned feverish as her legs wrapped around his hips.

"Did I hear my name? Oh!" they both groaned as Gabriel's voice interrupted them.

"Sorry about that. I heard angelic bastard and came a-running." He said with a wink, leaning on the doorway as they glared at him.

"Have they kissed and made up yet?" Jo asked, walking in behind Gabriel with a grin.

"Hey! Private moment!" Dean protested as Ellen and Sam followed her.

"Not in my kitchen, it isn't." Bobby grumbled, rolling in with Cas closely following him.

"I hate you all." Dean grumbled, turning to face the group.

Elena remained on the counter, pulling him back to lean against her with her chin his shoulder and her arms lazily draped around his shoulders and neck.

"What now?" Sam asked, passing out beers as they stood in there.

"We keep on survivin', that's what." Bobby said.

"Sounds like a plan to me." Ellen said as they all opened their bottles.

"Surviving." Sam shrugged, holding his beer up.

They all did the same, nodding as they took drinks of it, basking in the fact that everyone made it out alive that night.

* * *

**Author's Note: I hope that you liked that chapter's end a little bit better than the last chapter for you. Review please!**

**A few things:**

**1. In case you didn't know, the very first scene is a dream.**

**2. I'm not sure what the next chapter is going to have in it. So it'll a surprise for all of us.**

**3. Review please!**

**4. Elena's outfits are on my profile.**

**5. I know that I kinda wrote the reaction scene to Elena's confession in a strange way but I couldn't get the whole thing done to where fitting into the chapter. If you want to see it, I do have it written out and I can publish it separetely as a deleted scene kind of thing. Let me know.**


	11. Chapter 11

**Disclaimer: I do not own TVD or Supernatural**

**Thanks to TheElegantFaerie, RHatch89, Dark Alana, DrawingMyHeartOut, Dark-Supernatural-Angel, Slytherin Cat, justa20, LineChokor, Hollywood17, Nyssandria, xxPaige23xx, MelissaIsLame, DamonSalvatore789, diehardromantic, MaddAlice, SeargantPixie, chiwi, Nicole0203, and the two guests for reviewing! I love you!**

**1. I tried to make this chapter all light-hearted but I could't resist having some Klaus-shenanigans (that's right, I said Klaus).**

**2. Elena's outfits are on my profile.**

**3. This chapter starts out fast to set things up but then it slows down, I promise.**

**4. This chapter is shorter than the others and for that I apologize.**

* * *

**Music:**

**No Sleep Tonight – The Faders (dancing/singing scene)**

**Stayin' Alive – Bee Gees (dancing/singing scene)**

* * *

"I want to go back to Mystic Falls." Elena said, trailing her finger up and down Dean's chest as they laid in the bed, their legs tangled together with a sheet covering the important parts.

It was early in the morning and they'd just woken up. He looked down at her, meeting her eyes as she looked up.

"Why?" he asked.

Elena sighed and dropped her head, focusing on the movement of her hand.

"I have two weeks left, Dean. We haven't found anything. We have two angels on our side, one of them an archangel, and we haven't found a way out. I don't think we're going to either." Elena sighed.

"Hey, don't say that!" he said, turning her face to look at him.

She bit her lip and nodded.

"I'm sorry… I just, in case we don't find a way out between now and then… I want to see them. I want to have a good time with them. Please." She said pleadingly.

He titled his head to the side and nodded.

"Of course. Yeah we'll leave this afternoon, okay?" Dean asked.

She smiled slightly and nodded.

"Thank you, Dean." She said, putting her hand on his cheek.

"But we are going to find a way out of this." he assured her.

Elena kept her smile up but didn't say anything. She was telling the truth when she told Dean that she didn't think that they were going to find a way out of Zachariah's threat. She let her head fall on his chest and curled up against him, sighing with satisfaction as his fingers trailed up and down her spine softly.

* * *

Elena smiled as she walked out of the house and saw Sam and Dean checking the weapons as they loaded up the trunk. They weren't even going on a hunt and the boys were making sure that everything was in order.

"Can't really stop being a hunter, I guess." She shrugged, carrying her back over and throwing it in the trunk before Dean slammed it shut.

"What are you doing?" Dean asked as she climbed into the backseat.

"Sam can take front!" she announced.

Dean pouted back at her as he got in the driver's seat and Sam got in the passenger's side.

"Dean, you can at least act like you like your little brother." Elena said, rolling her eyes.

Sam smirked as Dean huffed and turned to pull out of the drive. Elena waved at Bobby as they went, grinning at him. As Dean flipped on the radio and they took off driving down the road, Elena leaned back and curled her legs underneath her, smiling as Sam and Dean got into an argument over whether or not they would be stopping for pie in a few hours. Elena stretched on the seat and put her head on the window, smiling as they turned to her to settle the argument.

"How about we stop at a diner? We can have a full meal like Sam wants and he can get salad or whatever. Then Dean can take the pie to go and eat it while Sam drives." She suggested.

They both nodded and gave each other one last glare before shutting up about the whole thing.

* * *

As they pulled into Mystic Falls late in the afternoon the next day, Elena was feeling excited and anxious at the same time. Dean and Sam hadn't been back since the first visit to Mystic Falls and a lot of things had happened. It was a Saturday so her friends wouldn't be attending school. When they drove through the main square, Elena caught sight of something in the park.

"Stop the car." She said.

"What?" Dean said, confused as he turned to look at her.

She waved him off but he did what she said and pulled into a parallel parking spot by the Grill. Elena practically leapt out of the car and ran across the street, knowing exactly where her friends and family would be.

"Caroline!" she screeched when she saw a flash of blonde hair.

The person in question turned around with a shocked expression to see Elena hurtling at her.

"Oh my God!" Caroline screamed, leaving a bewildered Tyler behind to run to her.

They met in the middle and practically jumped into each other's arms, laughing as they went tumbling to the ground. Dean and Sam ran up, still trying to figure out what was going on. They attracted a lot of attention as they hugged each other tightly on the ground.

"Elena!" Another voice squealed, joining the excitement as she bolted past the two hunters.

Bonnie jumped on top of them, joining the hug with a huge grin.

"I can't believe you're back!" Caroline exclaimed as they untangled themselves.

"Just for a couple of days." Elena said, sitting up with a thrilled expression.

"It doesn't matter! You're back!" Bonnie said, her arms thrown over Elena's shoulders.

Elena looked up at Dean and Sam and smiled. Caroline and Bonnie noticed and looked over at the brothers.

"Hello boys." She said with a grin as they stood up and brushed off their clothes of leaves and dirt.

"Hi." Dean said, waving awkwardly.

"Lena?" another voice said.

Elena turned at the familiar voice and her face lit up even more.

"Jer!" she exclaimed, running forward to throw herself into his arms.

"What are you doing here? Not that I mind." Jeremy asked, hugging her tightly.

"Just came back to see you." she said with a wide smile as she pulled away.

"Great timing too." Alaric said as he walked up, smiling with his hands in his pockets.

Elena grabbed him into a hug as well.

"Why's that?" she asked.

"Did you forget? It's the festival of the lanterns tonight." Caroline said, gesturing to the park where different people were setting up lights and tables.

"Oh, yeah. I don't feel bad that I forgot that." Elena said, shaking her head.

"It's good to see you again." Jeremy said, walking forward to shake hands with Sam and Dean.

"Thank you for bringing her back." Caroline said, smiling at them.

"It's the least we could do." Dean shrugged off, watching how happy Elena was with the group.

"We are so having a party at the Grill tonight to celebrate your return." Caroline said with a grin.

"A party?" Sam asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Oh come on! It's the best place to have it because everyone will be at the lantern festival tonight. We'll practically be alon there. I can compel us plenty of liquor, sorry Ric…" Caroline said, her eyes going to the adult responsible for them. "… and we can all have fun. " Caroline said pleadingly.

Dean turned to look at Elena and saw her staring up at him with her big pleading eyes.

"I wanted to come for fun." She reminded him.

"Fine." He sighed.

"I can't believe you fell for it again." Sam piped up.

"You try saying no!" Dean hissed back.

"I've tried." Sam replied, knowing exactly why his brother couldn't say no to her.

"Yay a party! Now we're going to go get ready at my house. And you boys are gonna go make sure that Matt is expecting us." Caroline said, dragging Elena and Bonnie off.

"I don't understand why we have to separate." Elena said, glancing back at Dean and Sam.

"Because I haven't had the chance to dress you up like a Barbie doll in forever and I miss it. So come on." Caroline replied.

* * *

"So tell us about everything." Bonnie said as Elena walked back in after taking a quick shower.

"There's not much to tell." Elena shrugged, pulling the towel off her head.

"Bullshit. You're blushing. Tell us." Caroline said from where she was pulling dresses and such out of her closet to match for the three of them.

"I don't know what you want me to say." Elena said with a smile, shaking her head as she began to blow dry her hair.

"Um how about the sex eyes you and Dean are sending to each other." Bonnie said, rolling her eyes from where she was doing her make up.

"We're not giving each other sex eyes." Elena sighed.

"Yeah you are." Bonnie and Caroline said at the same time.

They both looked at Elena when she kept silent as she focused the dryer on her hair.

"Have you had sex?" Bonnie asked.

"Oh please tell me you've had sex with that man. If you haven't, I'm gonna hit you over the head." Caroline threatened her.

Elena bit her lip and shrugged before grinning coyly back at them.

"How is it? Tell us everything!" Caroline demanded.

"It's sex, Caroline." Elena said, laughing.

"Yeah but what kind of sex? Sweet and sensuous? Hot and dirty? Crappy?" Bonnie said, glancing over her shoulder.

"How's your sex with my brother." Elena shot back, making Bonnie's eyes widen as she looked away. "That's what I thought."

"Oh come on, Elena. You have to tell us something. You are the only female who gets to have sex with that godlike man. Give us something." Caroline said pleadingly.

"Fine!" Elena sighed exasperatedly, rolling her eyes at her best friends.

They looked at her expectantly as she sat down in front of the full-length mirror to do her hair and make-up.

"It's… passionate. But not like, rough, you know? He's usually so gentle with me. I mean, he knows that I'm stronger than him and all that but he still treats me like I'm breakable but not in an annoying way. In a… sensual way. Sometimes he'll get a little into it but there's still an underlying gentleness to it. Dean isn't a very vocal person when it comes to feelings. So it's like, when we're together… like that… he's showing me how he feels rather than telling me." Elena explained.

After a few moments of silence, she turned to see Caroline and Bonnie staring at her.

"What?" she said.

"You love him." Caroline sighed.

"And he loves you." Bonnie said.

Elena couldn't help but smile as she turned to the mirror.

"You haven't said it yet." Caroline guessed.

"We just… I don't know." Elena sighed.

"You're afraid to? Sweetie, why?" Bonnie asked.

Elena sighed, forgetting that they didn't know Dean's story like she did.

"He's lost a lot of people and so have I. People that we love. It's like there's a jinx on the whole word for both of us. It feels like a gigantic risk to take, you know?" she said.

"That's ridiculous, Elena. You won't lose him just because you tell him you love him." Caroline said.

She fought the urge to tell them that she was going to lose him no matter what in just two weeks. They wouldn't take well to that information and she promised that she would keep it to herself when they came to Mystic Falls. Dean and Sam knew that she didn't want to talk about it with her family and friends so they promised to keep it quiet as well.

"You can't promise me that." was all she said.

Caroline and Bonnie both exchanged a look as they sighed.

"Well, we'll talk about that more later. For now, I have all of our outfits." Caroline announced, pointing at the bed.

Elena and Bonnie got up to look at them and Elena smiled, shaking her head.

"What are you up to, Caroline?" she asked.

"Is it so wrong to want to get all of us laid tonight?" Caroline shrugged, grinning.

Elena and Bonnie laughed, throwing their arms around their friend and tumbling to the floor together.

"So… I'm inviting Damon and Stefan." The blonde informed Elena a few minutes later when they were calmed down and getting ready once again.

"You're what?" Elena said, stopping as she stared at Caroline with a surprised look.

"Come on, Elena. They've been so much better lately. Especially Damon. I promise that everything will go just fine. And I know that you want to see them even if you won't admit it." Caroline said.

"She's right, Elena. And if I'm vouching for Damon, you have to know that it's serious." Bonnie said.

"Fine. But if it goes wrong, I'm blaming you." Elena said, pointing at Caroline.

"I'll let you." she agreed.

* * *

The guys were crowded together uncomfortably. Thankfully Caroline was right, the Grill was practically empty except for a few stragglers. Luckily, the Salvatores hadn't shown up to make everything completely awkward. Caroline texted Tyler that she'd told them a later time so that they wouldn't show up and see Dean and Sam before the girls got a chance to arrive. When the door finally opened to reveal Caroline and Bonnie, they all sat up a little straighter. Dean looked a little disappointed when Elena didn't walk in with them.

"She's coming. And you owe me big time." Caroline said with a wink as she passed him, patting his shoudler before she walked to Tyler and let him fawn over her outfit.

Dean turned to see the door open again. His eyes widened when he saw Elena walk in, her bronze legs on show with the black dress and tall heels. Her hair was simply curled down her back. Her lips curved into a smile as she walked up to him, satisfied by the stunned expression.

"Caroline made me." she shrugged, walking straight to where he was leaning against the bar.

"Thank you Caroline." He breathed, pulling her in close as his arms wrapped around her waist.

Elena's head tilted back as he ran his lips up her neck, inhaling the perfume of hers that he loved so much. Everyone else looked away, feeling as though they were intruding on a private moment even though they were in a very public bar and grill. Her arms slid around his shoulders as his lips trailed up her jaw to her mouth. When their lips met softly, they pushed together even closer if it was possible.

"Ahem." Jeremy said, looking uncomfortable.

"It happens a lot?" Alaric asked Sam.

"You have no idea." He scoffed, taking a drink of his beer.

Caroline and Bonnie watched with amusement on their faces as Dean and Elena kissed passionately. When they finally broke apart, everyone breathed a sigh of relief. Dean pulled Elena in close again and she looked over at Caroline, winking and lifting her hand to give the blonde a thumbs up. Caroline shrugged as if to say, 'I know what I'm doing'. She just grinned back and they all grabbed their drinks before walking to stand around a pool table. Jeremy started to arrange the game.

"So Elena, any fun stuff happened?" Alaric asked.

"Well… I have met the archangel Gabriel." Elena said, smiling at their reactions.

"**The** Gabriel?" Jeremy said.

"Yeah. He's… uh, well how would explain him, guys?" she asked, grinning at Sam and Dean.

"A pain in the ass." They said at the same time.

"What?" Alaric said, confused.

"Yeah you're gonna have to let go of any preconceptions about angels that you ever had." Elena informed them.

"He's a damn thorn in my side." Dean grumbled.

"He likes to play tricks on people." Elena shrugged.

"By 'play tricks', she means that he's spent years giving people their just desserts, bringing a whole new meaning to the term 'irony'." Sam said.

"And he just so happens to be Elena's guardian." Dean said.

"What?" the others all said, looking at her with confusion.

"I'm Dean and Sam's guardian, you know? Well apparently guardians have guardians." Elena explained.

"And the angel Gabriel is your guardian?" Caroline asked.

"Yep!" Elena nodded.

"Who wants to play pool with me?" Jeremy asked.

"I'll do it." Alaric said, taking a cue from the wall.

Elena leaned back into Dean's arms as they watched them play.

"I'm gonna go fix the music. They let Matt control it, which is never a good idea." Caroline said with a roll of her eyes.

"Put something good on!" Elena and Bonnie yelled.

"Bitch please! I always put something good on!" Caroline shouted back much to the astonishment of the other people in the restaurant.

A few moments later, they heard a song that made Bonnie and Elena's eyes widen.

"I haven't heard this…" Elena began. "… since our sleepovers!" Bonnie exclaimed, grabbing her hand to drag her away from Dean.

Caroline ran out of the back and grinned happily as she skipped up to the other two girls.

"These are the original two people that I used to sing and dance like crazy with." Elena informed Dean and Sam.

They smiled at her as she began dancing with Caroline and Bonnie.

"I got you… I got you on my mind. And it's time to make you see… what I want!" they all sang as they twirled around.

"Doesn't this seem dangerous in those shoes?" Dean wondered.

"You'd be surprised." Tyler said, shaking his head.

"If anyone can survive in those shoes, it's those three girls." Jeremy agreed.

"Don't think you know… how far I'm gonna go!"

It didn't take long for them to run back and grab their boys to dance with them. Dean shrugged back at Sam, not caring that this wasn't his kind of music at all. The big smile on her face was enough to convince him to dance.

"You want me… you want me all the time… and you don't need nothing else." she sang in his ear as he pulled her in close.

He dipped her backwards and grinned at the peal of laughter he elicited from her.

"You can't stop this… feeling! There's not escape! No sleep tonight! You won't get… no sleep tonight!"

"She has you doing this a lot?" Tyler asked Dean as they danced around with their girls.

"Usually when she does it with me and Sammy, it's… uh, good music." Dean explained.

"What do you call good music?" Jeremy asked.

The song ending interrupted Dean and they turned to see Elena making a face at him that told him that she heard his 'good music' comment.

When the next song started, a grin spreaded across her face.

"Sam!" she exclaimed, turning to run back to the younger Winchester brother.

Jeremy and Tyler looked at him questioningly.

"When she knows I won't dance with her to a song, she gets Sam. He'll dance to anything." Dean explained, smiling as she dragged him forward.

"Well, you can tell by the way I use my walk… I'm a woman's man no time to talk! Music loud and women warm… I've been kicked around, since I was born!" Sam sang as Elena danced with him, grinning up at him with her eyes sparkling. "And now it's all right… it's okay! And you may look the other way! We can try to understand… the New York times' effect on man!"

Whether you're a brother or whether you're a mother… you're stayin' alive, stayin' alive. Feel the city breakin' and everybody shakin'… stayin' alive, stayin' alive." They sang together, inspiring everyone else to start dancing as well, except for Dean and Alaric.

"Ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin' alive, stayin' alive! Ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin' aliiiiiiive!" they all sang together, attracting many surprised and amused looks.

"Well now, I get low and I get high… and if I can't get either, I really try! Got the wings of Heaven on my shoes… I'm a dancin' man and I just can't lose!" Elena sang at the top of her lungs as Sam whirled her arm, making her laugh.

"You know it's all right, it's okay… I'll live to see another day! We can try to understand… the New York times' effect on man!" everyone sang with her.

"Whether you're a brother or whether you're a mother… you're stayin' alive, stayin' alive! Feel the city breakin' and everybody shakin'… stayin' alive, stayin' alive! Ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin' alive, stayin' alive! Ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin' aliiiiive!"

"What is going on here?" they all turned to see Damon and Stefan standing there with confused eyes.

Elena stopped short and looked back at Dean, wondering how they would react to seeing each other.

"Elena?" Damon said.

She turned back to them and smiled.

"Hi, guys." She said, walking forward to hug them.

They hugged her back, obviously surprised by her presence as Caroline hadn't told them in her invitation to the Grill.

"What are you doing here?" Stefan asked.

"I'm here to see you guys, of course. All of you. We're having fun… so join us." Elena said, gesturing to the pool table.

After a few awkward minutes, everyone finally relaxed and began to have fun again. Elena was glad to see that there was actually no presence of awkwardness between anyone, including Damon and Dean.

* * *

"Bobby just texted me, apparently Cas keeps calling him." Dean informed her as they ate around a large table.

"Oh, he's probably trying to find out where we are. I bet he's been calling me too." Elena said, digging through her purse.

"Oh it must have dropped out in Caroline's car. I'll be right back." Elena said, grabbing Caroline's keys out of her purse that was hanging over the chair next to her and kissing Dean on the cheek.

She shivered as she walked out into the cool night air, rubbing her arms as she ran to Caroline's car. She found her phone quickly sitting on the floorboard. Sure enough, there were five missed phone calls from Castiel. As she walked back towards the restaurant, she quickly dialed his number.

"Elena." his voice answered.

"Hey, Cas. What's up?" she asked.

"Where are you?" he asked.

"Mystic Falls. Where are you?" she replied, smiling as she walked back.

"I'm…"

Whatever he said was drowned out by a voice behind her.

"Hello, lovely." She turned around quickly and saw a familiar person standing there.

"Klaus." she said.

"What… Elena?" Cas said.

"I heard you were back in town, Elena. I just couldn't resist. I assume you've heard of my theory." Klaus said.

"Yeah, that my blood is the key to your hybrids. Too bad you'll never find out." Elena said.

"Won't I?" Klaus said with a smirk.

"Elena what is going on?" she heard Cas demand.

Klaus' eyes flashed to something behind her and she turned to see the same redhead witch standing there that helped them with Mikael behind her.

"What are you…" she was cut off by the witch starting forward and putting a hand on her head.

"Sorry about this." she said.

Elena tried to move away from her but Klaus darted forward and held her arms behind her back.

"Not so fast, love." he whispered in her ear as her phone clattered to the ground.

The witch closed her eyes but neither of them were expecting Elena to break Klaus' hold far too easily. It was too late, though. She screamed and fell to her knees as a white hot pain flashed through her head.

"Stop! Please!" she sobbed as it continued.

* * *

"Cas what's going on?" Dean sighed as he answered his phone.

"Something is wrong with Elena. I don't know where you are or why you're not with her but Klaus attacked her. I am in Mystic Falls but I don't know where you are." Cas said quickly.

Dean turned to the door, realizing that Elena hadn't come back from getting her phone.

"Son of a bitch! We're at Mystic Grill, Cas" He growled, turning to run out.

Everyone else noticed the panic on his face and they exchanged wary glances before standing to follow him. Dean slammed outside. Her screams reached his ears before he saw her.

"No! Put me down!" she screamed.

He ran around the corner with everyone else hot on his heels. They all watched with surprise as Klaus flew into the wall with force. An unconscious woman was on the ground and Elena was hunched over on her knees crying.

"What the hell did you do?" Dean growled as Klaus stood.

He didn't get a chance to answer as Damon ran up and shoved a vervain dart in his chest. He fell to the ground once again, weakened.

"It won't keep him down for long." Damon warned.

Dean ran to Elena to help her up.

"Hey, shh… it's okay." He murmured.

She looked up at him, tears in her eyes and running down her cheeks. Her eyes searched his face as if she was looking for something.

"Elena?" he said, wondering why she hadn't spoken.

"Who are you?" she whimpered, making everyone stop in whatever they were doing to stare at him.

Elena pushed him away and stumbled backwards, looking around at all of their faces.

"Who are any of you?" she cried, panicked.

Dean looked back when he heard footsteps to see Cas running up to where they were standing.

"Elena, it's us. We're your friends." Caroline said, walking forward.

She shook her head and stumbled backwards.

"Why can't I remember anything?" she screamed.

"What the hell did you do to her?" Damon demanded, shoving Klaus against the wall.

Dean looked back at Cas for help.

"I erased her memory. All of it. I thought that it might make her more willing to come with me. Apparently her fighting instinct is strong even when she doesn't remember having anything to fight for." Klaus spat, glaring around at them.

Cas walked up to him and touched two fingers to his head, knocking him out. Then he turned to walk to Elena. She stumbled away from him, her eyes wide and fearful.

"How did you do that?" she stammered.

"Elena, it's okay. He's not going to hurt you. He's going to help you." Dean assured her.

"I don't know you! Why would I believe you?" Elena demanded, tears streaming down her face as she trembled.

"Elena please." Caroline said, walking forward.

"I don't know any of you." she sobbed, falling to her knees without paying attention to the gravel digging into her skin.

Dean rushed forward and knelt over her, pulling her into his arms.

"Hey, here… look…" he pulled out his phone and flipped it open to the home screen.

On it was a picture that Sam had taken about a month ago of them. They were sitting on the Impala. Well Elena was. Dean was in front of her leaning back into her. Her arms were wrapped around his neck loosely and her legs were tightly wound around his waist.

"That's you and me." he said, watching as she looked down at it.

She didn't react, just staring at it as tears continued to fall from her eyes.

"I have more." He said, going to the pictures folder that was mostly filled with pictures of them with a few that had Sam, Bobby, or even Cas in them.

He flipped through them slowly, letting her look at them as everyone watching. His hand stroked her arm softly as he did so, comforting her. There was one of her in the snow in Washington State as they were hunting a shapeshifter. She was simply standing in the falling snow and smiling at the camera as Dean took the picture. Her eyes were sparkling and she looked happy. The next one was of her and Sam making snow angels, one small and one gigantic. Then there was one of when they made Cas make a snow angel despite the fact that he had no idea what the point was. The next was one that Sam had taken while they were sleeping. Elena was curled up into Dean's side as his arms were wrapped protectively around her. The next was a picture of Elena doing her hair. A strange picture to take but Dean couldn't resist. The next was of her just waking up, her eyes slightly open and her hand lifted and flipping off the camera.

"I know you." she whispered, looking up at him.

"Yeah." He nodded, closing the phone.

Her eyes darted up to the rest of them.

"Why don't I remember?" she asked, her voice small as he helped her up.

"This is Cas. You know him. He's… uh… he's got these abiliites. He can help us figure out why you can't remember." Dean said.

Elena stared at him for a moment before nodding. Cas walked up to her slowly and reached out to put his hand to her forehead. His eyes closed and he concentrated as she stared warily at him. Suddenly she gasped and reached out to touch his hand.

"It is a witch's spell. Her memory isn't completely erased. Think of it as a wall that is keeping it shut away." Cas said as he drew away, not taking his hand from her grip.

"So how do we reverse it?" Dean asked.

"We don't. I do not have the power to do such a thing. I can get Gabriel…"

"Then get him." the older Winchester said.

Cas nodded and turned to disappear but Elena stopped him.

"You're an angel." She said.

They all looked at her with surprise.

"Parts of her memory might be breaking through. The spell is not strong enough to withhold her mind. It was designed for a human and…" he trailed off, afraid that she might get freaked out by the reference that she wasn't a human.

"And I'm not a human?" she finished, her eyes wide.

No one answered her but it was pretty clear from the way they avoided her eyes.

"What am I then?" she asked.

"It's hard to explain, Elena. Why don't we just find a way to get your memories back and then we won't have to worry about answering your questions, all right?" Dean asked.

She nodded slowly and watched as Cas disappeared, flinching slightly but not freaking out. Her eyes went to Klaus.

"Why did he attack me? Why did he do this to me?"

"Because he's a dick." Caroline said.

They all looked at her, Elena with a questioning look.

"I'm Caroline, your best friend other than Bonnie here. We've been friends since the cradle. So trust me when I say that we're going to fix this." Caroline said with a reassuring look.

Elena nodded and her eyes went around the group. When they fell on Jeremy, she stared at him for a moment before breaking away from Dean and walking towards him.

"I know you." she whispered, walking right up to him.

"I'm Jeremy. I'm your brother." he said.

Elena bit her lip and nodded, tears springing to her eyes once again.

"I'm sorry that I don't remember." She cried.

"Shh… it's okay. We'll fix it, okay?" he said, drawing her into his arms.

"Let's just get you home, okay sweetie? We'll get you into some comfortable clothes and wait on the other angel to come and he'll make everything better." Caroline said as she walked over, soothing Elena by stroking her arm.

She nodded and her eyes went to Dean, who almost looked physically pained by the situation.

"Can I ride with you?" she asked.

He looked surprised but he nodded.

"Of course." He agreed.

Elena nodded and pulled away from Jeremy, walking to him. When he led her to his car with an agreement to follow Caroline back to the Grill, Sam walked up to them.

"I'm Sam. I'm Dean's brother." he said, holding out something to her.

She looked down to see that it was a phone.

"Is it mine?" she asked.

"Yeah." He nodded.

"Thank you, Sam."

He smiled at her.

"You're welcome." He said.

Elena turned to see Dean opening the car door for her. She climbed in and looked around.

"This is a nice car." She said as Dean climbed in.

He grinned over at her.

"You always make fun of it." he said.

She sighed and looked out the window.

"I guess I'm not really feeling like myself, whoever I am." She said softly.

Dean's smile faded and he took a deep breath before pulling out of the parking lot. As soon as they arrived at the Gilbert house, he surrendered Elena over to Caroline and Bonnie, who took her upstairs to change clothes. A few minutes later, they descended with matching stressed looks as everyone stood around.

"She won't do anything. She's just sitting on her bed staring at her phone. We think she's looking at pictures." Caroline said.

"Should I…" Jeremy said, starting for the stairs.

"I think Dean should go." Bonnie said.

They all looked at him.

"She's right, Elena seems to trust you the most right now." Jeremy nodded without a hint of resentment in his voice.

Dean nodded back and walked up the stairs slowly. He found her sitting on the bed with her heels discarded and her legs tucked underneath her as she looked down at her phone, sniffling quietly.

"You know, you always sit like that." he said, gesturing to her as she looked up at him with surprise.

"They wanted me to change clothes. I don't even remember what I like to wear." Elena admitted, sounding devastated because of it.

"Well I can help you with that." he said, walking over to the bag that he'd brought to her room earlier when they were waiting at the house to go to the Grill.

"When you're at home or in a motel with us you always like to be in comfortable clothes." He explained, pulling out different articles of clothing.

When he handed them to her, she looked up at him with wide eyes.

"Do we stay in motels a lot?" she asked with hesitation.

He sighed and squatted at her feet.

"You know how you knew Cas was an angel?" Dean asked.

She nodded.

"Well he's not the only thing out there. There are a bunch of supernatural things out there and not all of them are good like Cas. In fact, a lot of them are bad. Sammy and I hunt them. A while ago, you joined us." Dean said.

"We hunt… monsters?" Elena asked, sounding skeptical.

"Yeah, and you're a big help. You know how you threw Klaus across that parking lot?" he asked.

She nodded slowly.

"You can do that all the time. Helps us out a lot." He explained.

"What am I? How can I do that?" she asked, sounding desperate to know.

"Tell you what, you go get dressed and when you come back out, I'll tell you whatever you want to know." Dean offered.

She took them from him and stood to walk into the bathroom as he stood as well and sat on the bed to wait on her. A few minutes later, she walked out. She was wearing the clothes and her hair was thrown into a messy bun.

"This seemed like something I liked. Do I like my hair like this?" she asked, gesturing to it.

"Yeah, you love it." he nodded.

She smiled slightly, the first time he'd seen her smile since her memory was erased, and walked to the bed to sit next to him.

"You are a guardian. You were created by the angels to guard two people in particular. Me and Sam." Dean explained.

"Because you hunt monsters?" Elena asked.

"Yeah, and we get in trouble a lot and apparently we're important to him." Dean said.

He wanted to leave out the apocalypse stuff. She would get her memory back when Gabriel showed up so there was no need to concern her with it now. She reached down and picked up her phone where she left on the bed.

"Can you tell me about these pictures?" she asked, flipping back to the beginning of them.

"Of course." He nodded.

"Who is this?" Elena asked, pointing to a picture of her kissing Bobby on the cheek as he blushed and glared at the camera.

"That's Bobby. He's a hunter too. He's also kind of a father to us three, you, me, and Sammy." Dean explained.

Elena looked up at him.

"My real dad?" she asked.

Dean sighed.

"He's uh… he's…" he cut off, shaking his head.

"He's dead." Elena guessed.

Dean nodded, swallowing hard as he waited for her reaction.

"My mom too?" She asked.

He nodded again and she sighed and went back to the pictures.

"Where was this one?" she asked, showing him a picture of Dean turning towards the camera with Elena on his back, both of them sticking out their tongues as the sun shone brightly behind them.

"That was in a small town in Nevada. There was a nest of vampires there that we had to clean out. This was after that. You insisted on having a day to relax and so we went to a picnic in the park that you packed yourself." Dean said.

Elena looked up at him, the look on her face indiscernable.

"And this one?" she asked, flipping to the next picture.

Dean blushed as he looked at it. They were kissing as Elena took the picture with her hand raised high in the air. It also showed their upper torsos and it showed that they were obviously naked though they were entwined together so nothing was showing. Though it was easy to figure out what they'd just been doing.

"That's, uh… that's at Bobby's house in Sious Falls. We had a few days off." he said, looking down at his hands.

She nodded and flipped to the next one that was in the same place around the same time. Instead of kissing Elena was grinning up at the camera as Dean smiled over at her. Then the next one was them smiling at each other.

"We look like we're in love." Elena said, making him look up at her with wide eyes.

She looked over at him and took in his shocked expression.

"Are we not?" she immediately backtracked.

"I, uh… I don't… we… I…" he stammered.

They were interrupted by a knock on the door. They looked up to see Caroline standing there.

"Your guardian angel is here, Elena." she said with a smile as she took in the scene before her.

She sighed and looked over at Dean.

"Come on. It'll be okay, I promise." He said, taking her hand.

Elena tossed her phone back on the bed before following him down the stairs. They quickly came across Cas and Gabriel standing in the entryway with everyone else around them.

"Hello, cupcake." Gabriel said with a grin as they walked up to them.

Elena stared at him with a blank look.

"Whew, you're right, Cassie boy. All that memory is gone. If this was still our girl, she'd be firing back with a snarky remark." He said, circling her.

"You must be Gabriel." She said dryly.

"Yes I am. Pleasure to meet you… again." He said, tipping his head at her.

"Can you fix her?" Dean demanded.

"Slow your roll. I'll get around to it." Gabriel said.

Everyone else stared at him with wide eyes, just now believing Elena's warning that angels were different than they should have expected. Gabriel reached out his hand and touched her forehead much like Cas had before. As his eyes closed, so did Elena's. When he was done, he pulled away with narrowed eyes that almost looked angry all of the sudden.

"I hate magic, have I ever mentioned that." he snapped.

"Don't you use magic all the time?" Sam reminded him.

"No, I use my angelic abilities and I disguise it as magic, there's a difference. I'm talking dark witchy magic that screws with people's heads." Gabriel growled, pacing.

"What, you can't fix it?" Dean asked.

"That's like asking if you can fix a tire with a wrench, hunter boy. Angel mojo and magic don't go together. They aren't compatible. I can't counteract what that witch did to her no matter how hard I try." Gabriel said.

"So what… I'm stuck like this?" Elena asked fearfully.

Gabriel looked at her with his furious eyes and they softened almost immediately at the tears that were gathering in her eyes.

"No, no we're gonna fix it. I promise you we'll fix this." he said, putting his hands on her cheeks and nodding at her.

Elena looked at him for a moment before nodding back.

"I believe you." she said.

* * *

**Author's Note: I'm not leaving it there to torture you, I promise! I have to do schoolwork and I know that I haven't updated in over a day so I feel bad! Please review!**


	12. Chapter 12

**Disclaimer: I do not own TVD or Supernatural**

**Thanks so much to RHatch89, DrawingMyHeartOut, TheElegantFaerie, Dark Alana, Nyssandria, LineChokor, Hollywood17, Dark-Supernatural-Angel, xxPaige23xx, MelissaIsLame, diehardromantic, SeargantPixie, MrsMaeveSalvatoreMikaelson, Nicole0203, chiwi and the three guests!**

**1. I always do worse when I try to drag something out so I just wanted to warn you that Elena's lack of memories is not going to last a long time.**

**2. The scene of Elena regaining her memories is long and drawn out because I got carried away and excited. I'm sorry about that.**

**3. Italics are memories.**

* * *

**Music:**

**I Need To Know - Kris Allen (memories scene)**

**Kiss Me - Ed Sheeran (the end scene - you'll know)**

* * *

It was chaotic. It didn't help that she was confused and had no memory. But everyone was talking at the same time, trying to suggest things. Elena closed her eyes slowly and inhaled deeply, massaging her temples as everyone's voices overlapped.

"I say we find the witch who did this and make her reverse it." Damon suggested.

"If Klaus is smart at all, he'll have either killed her or gotten her out of town as fast as he can. And trust me when I say that Klaus is more than smart." Stefan said.

"Bonnie?" Caroline said, sounding hopeful.

"I can do research but I'm not sure if I'm powerful enough to reverse it." she said, sounding doubtful of herself.

"Why don't you at least try?" Jeremy questioned.

"I'll go get my grimoire." Bonnie nodded, standing up.

"I'll go with you. No one should be out alone." Caroline said.

"Yeah me too." Tyler offered, standing as well.

"We really shouldn't even be here. Klaus is invited in and he could get to her anytime. If you think he's given up on getting her blood I know for a fact that you're wrong." Damon said.

"I don't think he's gonna get past three vampires, a werewolf, a witch, three hunters, and two angels." Dean said.

"And even if he does, the very person he is after is stronger than him." Cas said, looking back at Elena.

They all looked at her and she stared around at them.

"I am?" she said in a small voice.

"Do you not remember throwing him halfway across that parking lot?" Damon said, smirking.

"I don't remember much, no." she shot back, glaring at him for his lack of tact.

Damon grew quiet and even had the good sense to look ashamed of himself. Caroline looked over at Elena to see that she was exhausted.

"Sweetie…" she said, walking over and kneeling next to her. "… you should go get some sleep."

Elena looked up at her with tired eyes but shook her head.

"I don't want to… not with everything that's happening. What if… I'm needed?" she asked.

"We have plenty of strong bodies here. We can deal with you sleeping for a few hours." Dean assured her.

"You've been through a lot in the past few hours." Caroline said.

Elena sighed but nodded, standing up.

"Someone should probably go up there with her… just in case." Alaric suggested.

Elena looked back and her eyes fell on Dean.

"Will you come?" she asked in an uncertain voice.

Dean looked surprised but no one else did. They all expected her to ask him. He stood and followed her out of the room and up the stairs. When they got to her room, she immediately climbed in between the blankets, curling up into a ball and looking at him as he remained in the doorway. His eyes fell on the window seat and he began to walk over to it.

"What are you doing?" Elena asked, looking up at him.

He looked down at her with surprise.

"I'm just gonna sit here." He said, gesturing to the seat.

Dean could have sworn a flash of disappointment went through her eyes but she nodded anyways. Before he sat, he turned off all the lights. When he was comfortable and his gun was waiting in his hands, he heard her sigh softly.

"Dean?" she said.

"Yeah?" he asked.

"What was our first kiss like?" she asked.

He smiled slightly and thought back to that case.

"We were hunting a shapeshifter that was turning into different monster from old horror movies. One of the monsters was Dracula and he focused on you as his bride. He thought of me as his competition and kidnapped both of us, putting you in a wedding dress and me in a torture electrocution machine. When you came out, you requested that he let you say goodbye to me. You knew that I had a gun in the back of my pants. So to distract him from seeing you pull it out, you kissed me." he explained.

After a few moments of silence, she turned over to look at him.

"That doesn't sound very romantic." She admitted.

"Well… it wasn't romantic but it was a good kiss. Better than good, actually. But later in the night, neither of us could sleep. So we went outside and kissed again. It was much more romantic that time. For one, Dracula wasn't watching us." Dean said.

He could have sworn he saw a flash of a smile in the moonlight.

"If you get tired or uncomfortable…" she trailed off and he turned to look at her.

"Yeah?" he asked, urging her to finish the sentence.

"I don't mind if you come lie beside me." Elena admitted.

He smiled and nodded.

"I'll keep that in mind."

* * *

"_Hello Elena." she inhaled deeply as she looked around the darkly lit room._

"_Who are you?" she said, staring at the man._

_He was familiar and his very presence sent a chill down her spine._

"_Oh you know who I am." He replied, walking forward as the candles that were set up around the room lit up his face._

"_What's wrong with your face?" Elena asked._

"_Just a little cosmetic problem. Nothing to be concerned about." He shrugged._

"_Who are you?" she repeated, staring at him._

"_Look into your mind, Elena. Look very very deep into your mind." He said._

"_I can't. I have no memories." She argued._

"_That excuse may work with your angels but it won't work on me. You and I both know that you have the power to break through that spell. You're just too afraid." He said._

"_No, I can't." she denied, shaking her head._

"_Yes, you can." He replied, shrugging as he walked in a circle around her._

_She followed his every movement with her eyes, turning when he ended up behind her._

"_You look familiar." Elena admitted._

"_That's because you and I have met. I am always in the back of your mind, my face haunts your thoughts as you wonder if I'll succeed." He said._

"_Succeed? In what?" she asked._

"_That's not important, Elena. I'm trying to tell you how to get out of this little mess that you're in. Now wake up and break through that spell." He demanded._

"_I can't!" she shot back, angry and afraid._

"_Yes you can! Break through it! Now! Before you get that hunter of yours killed!"_

* * *

Elena sat up with a gasp, sweat covering her entire body as flashes of the dream went through her mind. Who was that man? Why was he urging her to break through the spell? Why did he think she could do such a thing? Was it just a figment of her imagination or did she really know him? She sighed and rubbed her eyes before looking around. It suddenly occurred to her that she was alone in the room.

"Dean?" she called, looking around with wide eyes.

There was no answer. Elena slid out of bed listened closely. After a moment, she heard a grunt coming from the bathroom. She opened it slowly to reveal a blonde female with her arm wrapped around Dean's throat as he struggled to no avail. She was stronger.

"I was waiting for you to come." The girl said in a British accent.

"Who are you?" Elena demanded, her eyes wide as she looked at Dean to see him turning purple with lack of air.

"I'm Rebekah, Klaus' sister." Rebekah said.

"Let him go." Elena demanded.

"Not until you agree to come with us. Don't worry, Elena. Klaus is keeping everyone busy downstairs with a few minions of his. I'm just here to get you." Rebekah said.

"The angels…" Elena began.

"You don't think we know that banishing sigil?" she scoffed.

Elena was confused, not remembering such a thing existing but it sounded as though they'd gotten rid of the angels. She looked at Dean and saw him attempt to say something. Rebekah squeezed tighter, causing him to choke and gurgle.

"Stop it!" she cried.

"Are you going to come with me?" Rebekah asked.

He shook his head, obviously telling her to say no.

"I don't have a choice." She said softly, looking at him regretfully.

"Great." Rebekah said with a smirk before she snapped Dean's neck.

"No!" Elena cried, darting forward as his body fell to the ground.

She was suddenly slammed back into the wall by Rebekah.

"Time to go." the blonde said.

Elena stared at her with fury in her eyes.

"I am going to kill you." she growled.

"You've got no idea how. You have no memories." Rebekah said with a laugh.

Elena's hand flew up and grasped her wrist, squeezing. Rebekah's eyes widened as her bones ground together underneath her hand.

"I can figure it out." Elena shot back, her hand coming up to grasp her throat.

She whirled them around so that Rebekah was pressed against the wall.

"How about I start with ripping your fucking heart out?" she said, looking down at her chest.

"Nik!" Rebekah screamed, sounding panicked as she struggled with Elena.

Elena's hand covered her mouth.

"I may not have any memories but I still know what I am! I am that man's guardian and I may have failed at that but I can sure as hell avenge his death." Elena snapped.

"Let her go, Elena." Klaus said.

She turned to see him standing in the doorway. Her hand slipped off of Rebekah's mouth but she kept her pinned to the wall.

"You can heal him!" Rebekah cried.

Elena turned back to look at her.

"What?" she growled.

"You can heal him. I promise." Rebekah said.

"You're lying." Elena said, tightening her hold on her throat.

"I'm not. Please I know that you can bring him back from death. All guardians can bring their charges back from death. I knew a guardian once." The blonde vampire choked out.

Elena felt something and she whirled around to catch Klaus' throat as well as he rushed at her. She felt strength coursing through her veins as she held them effortlessly.

"You can go to hell, both of you." she snapped before slamming their heads together effortlessly, causing them to fall unconscious to the ground.

Then she ran into the bathroom and kneeled over Dean. When she looked up as footsteps sounded, she saw Sam run into the room.

"The minion vamps fled as soon as you knocked them out." he said, kneeling next to Dean as well.

"I don't know how to bring him back." Elena sobbed, tears running down her face without her permission.

"It's okay. I know how you do it." Sam said, taking her hands and placing them on Dean's chest.

"Just concentrate really hard on what you want to do. You usually close your eyes." Sam explained.

Elena nodded and squeezed her eyes shut, concentrating heavily on bringing him back to life.

"Nothing is happening." She said after a few moments.

"Give it time. Summon up the strength. I know that you can do it." Sam encouraged her.

Elena sighed and concentrated again, putting her full strength into the thought. Sam's eyes widened when a white light flowed from her hands and into Dean's chest. Elena's eyes popped open and he caught sight of a flash of bright blue before Dean gasped and sat up. He looked at them with wide eyes, breathing heavily.

"Did you heal me?" he asked Elena.

She nodded slowly. Before they could say another word, they looked up to see Klaus standing in the doorway with an angry look on his face. Elena's eyes narrowed and, in that moment, she didn't give a damn that she didn't remember anything. She just knew that she wanted to hurt this vampire so badly it was filling every vein in her body. She stood slowly and walked to him.

"Elena…" Dean said warily.

Klaus watched as she walked up to him.

"Fuck you, Klaus." she growled before throwing a punch at him.

He flew backwards into her room and flipped onto her bed. She ran forward and seized him, throwing him out of the room. Rebekah was just waking up and she watched with wide eyes as Elena followed Klaus out of the room and onto the stairwell landing. Dean and Sam followed her quickly.

"I am not a toy that you can fuck with at your leisure!" she shouted, seizing his shirt and throwing him at the stairs.

He tumbled down them but easily landed on his feet at the bottom, looking shocked at someone throwing him around like a rag doll. Elena stomped downstairs and he had the good sense to back away from her. But someone appeared behind him and seized him from behind. The angels had returned. Gabriel was holding him.

"Nice try, pretty boy." The archangel said, throwing him at Elena as she walked up to him.

She caught Klaus and threw him against the wall, her hand around his neck. Jeremy, Damon, Stefan, Caroline, Alaric, Bonnie, and Tyler all ran in.

"Go get Rebekah." she said to Gabriel.

He saluted her and disappeared, reappearing with the blonde vampire next to him and his hand holding her arm in an unbreakable grip. Then she turned back to Klaus.

"I am not sure what gave you the idea that my life is something for you to twist around to please yourself but I can guarantee you it's not. I can't even remember all of the things that you've done to me but I can imagine that they are unforgivable." She spat at Klaus as he glared at her.

Suddenly the front door flew open and they all turned to see three men standing on the porch, all of them looking slightly similar. Elena stared at the newcomers with confusion. When an image suddenly flashed in front of her eyes, Elena let go of Klaus and stumbled away, pressing her hands to her head. It was an image of one of the men who just showed up ripping out the hearts of two vampires. Dean caught Elena as she stumbled. Castiel caught Klaus' arm so that he wouldn't go anywhere. He was weakened but he was still stronger than the vampire. Elena looked up at the man she saw in her mind.

"Elijah." She breathed.

Everyone stared at her with surprise.

"More memories must be coming through the wall." Caroline said.

Elena squeezed her eyes shut and the words from her dream flashed through her head.

"_Break through it! Now!"_

She whimpered and sagged in Dean's arms as another memory flashed through her mind. It was the same man from her dream. She was in an old broken down room with him and Castiel was there too. But the angel was in the center of a circle of fire. It went away as quickly as it came. Elena looked up at Dean, reaching out to touch his face.

"Elena are you all right?" it sounded as though his voice was far away.

"_I'm Elena, by the way."_

"_I'm Dean Winchester."_

She let out a cry of pain as a white hot flash went through her head.

"What's going on?" Dean demanded, looking at Gabriel.

"I think she's trying to break through the spell all by herself." Gabriel said, staring at her.

"She can't do that! I researched it! She could destroy her mind and lose all of her memories!" Bonnie exclaimed, darting forward to stop her.

"That's a human, cupcake. Elena is anything but. Trust me when I say that she's strong enough for this." Gabriel said, stopping her.

Elena looked up at him with tears in her eyes.

"It hurts." She complained.

"Maybe you're wrong." Dean said, alarmed.

"I'm not. Elena I know it hurts but you have to keep going." Gabriel said, letting go of Rebekah to walk to stand in front of her.

Elijah ran forward to take hold of his sister, obviously angered by her and Klaus' actions against Elena.

"I can't." she cried.

"You have to. If you want to get your memories back you have to." Gabriel coached her.

She bit her lip and looked over at Dean.

"That's it. That's a good girl. Concentrate on lover boy here. Try to remember all of the many times he's pissed you off." the archangel said, making her laugh a little bit through her tears.

Dean sunk to the ground with her, holding her face in his hands as he looked into her eyes.

"You can do this, Elena. Think of me or Bobby or Sam. Whatever you have to do. Just try to remember." He encouraged her.

"_Who do you want to ride with, Elena? Me or the Bobbsey twins?" _it was the man from the pictures, Bobby.

"_She doesn't want to ride with an old man like you. She'll ride with us."_ Dean had his hand around her shoulder and he was steering her towards his car.

Elena gripped his hands as the memory flashed through her head. The next one came soon after, they were in a barn. The lights were shattering as a figure in a trenchcoat walked towards them.

"_Who are you?"_

"_Castiel."_

They were in a study-type place and Elena somehow knew that it was Bobby's house.

"_Any other dirty secrets you got, girl?"_

"_Sometimes I make and eat a whole pan of brownies."_

"_Sam you have to buy more. Brownies."_

They were in the car now. She was crying because of Stefan. He was different. He'd changed. She'd been in love with him. Sam reached over and pulled her into a hug, letting her cry in his arms. Then she was in Bobby's living room with a shirtless and battered Dean.

"_I just wish that there's something I could do about your bruises."_

That was the first time she ever healed Dean and she hadn't even known that she did it.

"_The rising of the witnesses is one of the 66 seals."_ They were in Bobby's kitchen with Castiel.

"_Why break the seal anyway?"_

"_Lucifer walks free."_

She was kneeling over Dean's body with her hands over a knife wound in his stomach and she was crying. Cas was next to her. He helped her heal him.

"_I know it's strange and I know that we've only known each other for a few days but all I could think was, not him too. He is not allowed to die on me."_

"_You were there in hell. You were beautiful, the most beautiful thing in that damn place. I remember looking up at you and I actually felt hope that there might be something past this pain. Because such a beautiful, pure woman couldn't be there, crying over me as I suffered, if there wasn't. You kept me going."_

Elena felt tears running down her face as her head pounded with pain and the memories flashed before her eyes. She felt something dripping out of her nose and Dean was yelling at Gabriel.

"She has to stop!"

"No!" she said, looking up at him. "I can't stop! Not now! I can do this!"

He stared at her for a moment before taking her hands and nodding. The scene flashed to one of Sam exorcising a demon with his mind, the first time they ever caught him doing that. It was also the first time that Elena really protected Dean from a threat, from Ruby. Then suddenly, her and Sam were standing outside of the Impala leaning against it.

"_I know it may not seem like it right now, but everything will be all right at some point."_

"_Yeah? When?"_

"_It's scientifically proven that everything that goes down, must come up."_

"_You got it wrong. It's everything that goes up must come down."_

"_I never paid attention in physics."_

Elena let her head fall forward to press against Dean's chest as she continued to remember. She could feel the blood dripping out of her nose but she didn't care. Her head was filling with her memories again and that feeling counteracted the pain she was experiencing.

They were in an old-fashioned room. She was in a long, flowing white dress and Dean was tied to a machine of sorts. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Dracula.

"_Keep playing along, okay?"_ she was approaching him with her heart pounding. _"I apologize, but this is necessary." _

Their lips pressed together and it all went downhill from there, so much so that they were so involved in the kiss that they forgot where they were and the threat that they were facing.

Then they were on the bed. Dean was hyperventilating and she had her arms wrapped around him.

"_You listen to me, when you hear those dogs bark or you hear someone say you're going back to hell, feel for my arms around you. That's what's real. I'm real, none of that shit. You aren't going back to hell because I won't let you. I swear to God if you go back, I'll go down there and get you myself. You are not going back, Dean Winchester. So you feel for my arms and you know that I am real."_

They were back in Mystic Falls, for the first time since she'd left to pursue Dean. But she wasn't happy. She wasn't happy at all. Sam and Dean were standing with her on the porch and comforting her.

"_When I first got here, I was a little happy to be here. Seeing Caroline and Alaric and Jer was good and I was happy. But now… now I just want to go home. I want to be back in Sioux Falls or in some shitty motel with just the two of you or Bobby. I don't want to be here anymore."_

She felt safe with the Winchesters. That's when she truly realized that they were it for her. They were her life now. Everything was rushing back one memory at a time. She remembered growing up. She remembered everything that happened before her parents died and afterward. But most importantly, she remembered everything that happened since she met Sam and Dean Winchester. She remembered being their guardian and the fact that she would die for them. She remembered her and Dean's relationship so far. The first time they'd ever kissed. Their first real fight with Anna involved. The first time they had sex. Then she remembered Lucifer rising. She remembered growing closer to Castiel and meeting Gabriel. The last memories that went through her mind were the ones to do with Zachariah and his threat.

How terrified she was of the threat. How angry Dean had been when he found out. How hard they'd been searching ever since to find a way out. How hopeless that was. She remembered the fact that, in two weeks, she'd be taken away from Dean and they could do nothing to stop it. Then, soon after, the apocalypse would happen. Lucifer and Michael's battle, if they could get Sam and Dean to say yes. Elena looked up at Dean, tears still streaming down her face.

"I remember." She said in a whisper.

He stared at her as he helped her up. Elena reached up and wiped her nose, looking down at the blood that was there. Then her eyes flashed over to Klaus, who looked truly terrified at something he saw there.

"You made me feel helpless again." She said in a soft voice that was more dangerous sounding than a shout.

"Elena." she looked at Elijah, squinting at him.

"I am sorry for Klaus' actions. Had I known what he was planning, I would have stopped him. Rebekah too." he said.

"I believe you." she nodded.

"I wish to ask you for something. Let us deal with our brother and sister. I promise you that Klaus will never bother you or your family again if you let us deal with them." Elijah said.

"No deal." Damon said instantly.

"Wait…" Elena said considering Elijah's words despite her anger.

"You can't be considering this, Elena. He erased your memories!" Damon stressed.

"I know exactly what he did. But what do you think we can do to him? We have no weapon to kill him. How do you suggest we deal with him? Elijah has been living with Klaus for a thousand years. I trust that he knows more than one way to make him suffer." Elena said, looking at him.

"He betrayed us! He told us he would kill Klaus…"

"And he has atoned for his actions." She interrupted him.

Then she turned to face Elijah.

"I have your word that you will not simply set him free?" she asked.

"You have my word." he nodded.

Elena sighed and stepped backwards, turning away. They heard a whooshing sound and the Original vampires all disappeared.

"You know I am an archangel. I could have dealt with them." Gabriel said.

"There's already enough death around here, Gabriel. I'm leaving Mystic Falls and pretty soon Klaus won't even be able to find me." Elena said, rubbing her forehead as the last twinges of pain sparked through it.

"Are you all right?" Dean said, causing her to turn and look at him.

"I'm just tired." she sighed.

"You should go get some sleep. I mean, everything is okay now." Caroline shrugged.

"No, there's something I have to do first." Elena said, turning to drag Dean out the door.

* * *

An hour later, everyone was crowded into the living room watching as Elena spread out every single picture that she owned and that she'd printed out from everyone's phones at Wal-Mart. A random comedic television show was playing on the screen as everyone drank beers and laughed together, trying to forget the stress of the past few hours. Elena was leaned back against Dean's legs as he sat in a chair placing pictures into photo albums and labelling them with the people that were in the picture and a memory that went along with them. When they asked her why she was doing what she was doing, her answer was simple.

"I'm never forgetting any of you again."

That was fine until she started snapping pictures of them with one of the five disposable cameras they got. People were trying to dodge the pictures but Elena would just follow them, laughing happily as she did so. When she turned the camera on the angels, Gabriel would contort into all sorts of crazy poses, using Castiel as a prop in some of them while the other angel just stared at the camera or glared at his brother. When Elena finally convinced him to smile, everyone told him to put the creepy half-smile half-grimace away before he scared a baby. It was nice to have time to laugh and have a good time after such a harrowing experience but there was still something bothering Elena in the back of her mind. As everyone finally retired, the angels disappearing and everyone who didn't live at or was visiting the Gilbert house left in their cars, Elena walked up the stairs hesitantly.

"You all right?" Dean asked.

Elena turned back to him with an uncertain look.

"When I went to sleep before, when I didn't have memories, I had a dream with Lucifer in it. I didn't know who he was, of course. But now… he's in my head, Dean. I'm afraid of going to sleep." She admitted.

He sighed and shook his head.

"It never really ends." Dean said, walking forward to take her in his arms.

"No, it doesn't." she agreed.

"I will be right beside you. You know that he can't find us, not with the symbols on our ribs. So whatever happens in your dream, you can always wake up. Just pinch yourself or something. And I will be right there waiting to assure you that everything is all right." he assured her.

Elena pulled away, feeling a sudden need to be as close to this man as possible. She leaned forward and pressed her lips to his. When she began pushing his jacket off of his shoulders, Dean got the message. He immediately lifted her into his arms, letting her wrap her legs around his waist, before carrying her the rest of the way up the stairs with little difficulty. As soon as they got into the room, Elena shoved the door closed before they collapsed onto the bed.

"I don't want to forget you again." She whispered, tears shining in her eyes as she looked up at him.

"I know." He murmured, stroking her cheek.

"It was horrible." Elena whimpered, turning them over so that she was straddling his hips.

She yanked his shirt over his head.

"I'm here now. You and me… we're here." Dean assured her softly as he pulled her shirt over her head.

"Dean…" she pulled away from their feverent kissing to look in his eyes, stroking his cheek.

"Elena…" he whispered back, his eyes full of **that** emotion.

She leaned in and captured his lips in hers again. Tears streamed down her face as they kissed and the weight of the past few hours bore down on her. He sat back on hands as she looked down at him.

"Hey…" he said, reaching up to wipe her cheeks.

She stared down into his eyes, those deep green eyes that she adored. Her fingers reached out and hesitantly traced his face. His smooth cheeks, the stubble on his jaw and chin, those lips that she worshipped so much.

"I…" she cut off, her voice breaking.

"It's okay, Elena. I'm here." He assured her.

She put both of her hands on his cheeks, looking deep into his eyes as his arms wrapped around her back, pulling her close to him.

"I love you." Elena finally choked out, her voice thick with emotion and sobs.

His eyes widened slightly and his lips parted slightly as he stared up at her. The tears continued to stream endlessly from her eyes.

"What did you…" he couldn't finish his sentence as his own emotions took over his throat.

"I love you, Dean." She repeated, her voice a little stronger this time though she was still crying.

Dean had many emotions in his eyes. He looked like he was shocked that she'd said those words though at the same time he looked as though he'd been waiting for her to say them for ages.

"Say it again." He breathed, sitting up as he pulled her down to his level.

"I, Elena Gilbert, love you, Dean Winchester." She repeated for the third time.

"You…" he said, shaking his head.

"Yes, I do." She said, smiling as she stroked his cheek.

"You love me."

She nodded, letting out a strangled half-sob half-laugh. Suddenly he flipped them over and his lips crashed down on hers.

"I have had people say that to me… countless times." He whispered as he stared down at her.

Elena remained quiet, letting him work through it in his head.

"You are the first person that I've truly believed."

She smiled up at him and pulled him down to kiss her.

"Wait…" he pulled away, staring down at her.

"What?" she asked, alarmed by the suddenness.

"I… I love you too." He said, looking as surprised by his words as he had been by hers.

Warmth filled Elena's body and she felt her heart skip a beat.

"I love you too." He said more confidently, nodding his head in affirmation.

Elena stared up at him, her hands on his chest.

"Dean…" she whispered, sliding them down towards his waistband.

"Yeah?"

"Make love to me." Elena murmured, looking up into his eyes with a loving look.

He smiled, a bright smile that showed how happy he was, the happiest that Elena had ever seen him.

"I love you, Elena Gilbert." He repeated.

She laughed and nodded.

"I know. I know you do. And I love you." she said, grinning back up at him.

It didn't take long for the rest of their clothing to be thrown across the room. Pretty soon they were naked and underneath the blankets of her bed. Elena didn't waste any time before spreading her legs and hooking her ankles around his waist.

"Please, Dean…" she whispered.

He slid into her and they both moaned at the contact. As he slowly began moving in and out of her, their eyes remained fixed on the other.

"I love you." Elena whimpered, arching her back when he hit **that** spot within her.

"I love you." he breathed before leaning down to capture her lips in his.

That was all they said for the rest of their lovemaking. Just repeating the same words over and over again as if they would never be able to say them again. It became both a plea and an affirmation on their lips. As they reached their climax together, their mouths collided together to swallow their screams of pleasure. When he collapsed to the side next to her, Elena turned over to look at Dean. A soft smile appeared on her face.

"You love me." she said happily.

"You love me." he repeated triumphantly.

* * *

**Author's Note: I know it was short but I couldn't resist leaving it there! They finally said it! Also, I will be posting a new chapter either very late tonight or tomorrow morning. So you won't have to wait long and that's why I was okay with writing such a short chapter. I'm sure you'll all survive until then. Review please!**

**A few things:**

**1. Elena doesn't change clothes in this chapter, so she's still in her comfy clothes from the last chapter.**

**2. You should all be very happy because I was originally going to wait a few more chapters before they said the L-word. But I knew that this was the right moment instead so it happened. I hope it was good.**

**3. REVIEW PLEASE!**


	13. Chapter 13

**Disclaimer: I do not own TVD or Supernatural**

**Thanks to RHatch89, Hale-Winchester, Dark-Supernatural-Angel, xxPaige23xx, Nyssandria, TheElegantFaerie, MrsMaeveSalvatoreMikaelson, Dark Alana, diehardromantic, JMHUW, DrawingMyHeartOut, slayerdiaries, chiwi, Hollywood17, LineChokor, Nicole0203, RachReadsAlot, and the guest for reviewing!**

**A few things:**

**1. I know that I said I would update sooner but you all have to remember that I am in school and taking very difficult classes. I need sleep and time to study. I am devoting as much attention as I can to this fic and that's why you almost always get updates once a day. So please be patient with me even if I don't update quickly enough for you.**

**2. Elena's outfits are on my profile.**

**3. Enjoy!**

* * *

"_You look surprised to be here. Did you really think that I would let you go so easily?" she stared up at Lucifer._

"_Why are you in my head?" she demanded._

"_Because I want to be." he shrugged, walking in circles around her just as he had been in her last dream._

"_Is this really happening? I mean, are you really in my dreams? This isn't just my mind playing tricks on me?" Elena asked, watching him out of the corner of her eye._

_"No it's not your mind. It's me." he confirmed._

"_Why did you want me to get my memories back so badly? You know that, with my memories, I'm going to do everything in my power to stop you. So why were you so eager to give me advice on getting them back?" she questioned._

_He let out a chuckle and turned to face her full on._

"_There will come a time, Elena, when you won't be so sure in your desire for my destruction. I needed you to remember who you were so that time will come. So that when you begin to have your doubts, I can be there to lend a helping hand." Lucifer shrugged._

_Elena squinted at him before letting out a laugh of her own._

"_Do you honestly think I'd ever accept the help of the devil?" she spat._

_He smirked at her._

"_I don't think anything, Elena. I know." He said._

"_That's not going to happen." She scoffed._

"_We'll see which one of us is right… eventually." Lucifer said simply._

"_I guess we will." Elena nodded._

"_Say hello to Sam for me." he said._

* * *

Elena gasped, her eyes popping open to be met with the darkness of her bedroom. She was pressed back against Dean's chest and his arm was thrown over her waist, keeping her close to him. She sighed as her eyes adjusted to the room and pushed her hair back out of her face before sitting up, Dean's arm falling off of her hips. She quickly underwear and bra and threw on his t-shirt. She didn't go far, just padding over to the window seat to curl up in the fluffy blanket that was on it and looking out the window.

What could Lucifer have possibly meant? Was she really going to seek out his help at some point? Why would she do that? She sat there thinking without paying attention to the time so about an hour later, she heard a groan from the bed and her head snapped to look at it. Dean sat up and rubbed his eyes, looking around confusedly.

"Lena?" he mumbled sleepily.

"I'm over here." She said softly, causing his eyes to flicker over to her.

"What're you doing there?" he asked, standing up and pulling his boxers and jeans on before walking over.

He sat across from her, picking up her feet to put them in his lap.

"I had another dream. With Lucifer." She admitted.

Dean sighed and began stroking his hand up and down her calf.

"I think that you are just having bad dreams." He assured her.

"He said that it was really him. That he was really in my head." Elena said, her eyes wide.

"You are dreaming about the devil? Do you really think that he would be entirely truthful in your mind's representation of him?" Dean asked.

"He just seems so real." She sighed, leaning her head back.

"You and I both know that the most terrifying dreams feel completely real. But they're just that, dreams." Dean said, reaching forward to take her hand.

She nodded slowly.

"If they continue and you're really worried about them, we'll see about how we can make them stop. I'm sure Bobby has a few ideas." He assured her.

Elena smiled, reaching out to stroke his cheek.

"Hey…" he said, pulling her forward to sit between his legs, her back against his chest and his arms wrapped around her.

"What?" she said, leaning her head back against his shoulder.

"I love you." he whispered, nuzzling her neck softly, his lips trailing over her skin.

She laughed quietly.

"I love you too." Elena said, relishing in the warmth of his body.

* * *

"You really have to go so soon?" Caroline whined, hugging Elena tightly.

"We've been called on another case, Care." She sighed, hugging her back just as tightly.

"This sucks." Bonnie mumbled as she turned to hug her.

"Yeah, tell that to the apocalypse." Elena shrugged.

They hadn't told them everything that happened to cause the apocalypse but just the condensed facts. Elena didn't want to lie to her Mystic Falls family as much as she had been. She hadn't told them about Zachariah and Lucifer. They would want to keep her there and safe but it was hard to tell them that she wouldn't be safe anywhere. In fact, it would be less safe for her to stay in Mystic Falls because Zachariah could find her using any one of them. It was better to stay on the move, and away from Jehovah's Witnesses.

"I still think that you should stay here." Damon said.

"Of course you do." Elena said, shaking her head and smiling as they hugged.

They were all standing out in front of the Grill, where they'd had one last meal together. She turned to see Elijah standing there, a small smile on his face as she walked up to him.

"Thank you for volunteering to kick Klaus' ass for me." she said with a slight smile.

"Anytime." Elijah replied, picking her hand up to kiss it.

"I know about the promise you made Gabriel." Elena said, looking up at him.

There was a faint flicker of emotion on his face.

"Gabriel has the ability to convince anyone to help him." Elijah said, nodding.

"If only to get him to shut the hell up." Elena countered, smirking.

Elijah let out a short laugh.

"Thank you." she said, serious once again.

He nodded and smiled at her before she moved on to hug Ric and Jeremy goodbye.

"Does it have to be you?" Jeremy asked.

"Dean and Sam are going to stop the apocalypse. They need me to help them, Jer. I have no choice." Elena said.

"But you'll come back, right?" Caroline questioned.

Elena looked around at them before looking back at Sam and Dean.

"I can't guarantee that, guys. Not this time." she sighed.

"Then don't go." Damon said.

"I can't stay, Damon. I can't ignore what is happening just because it's dangerous and I might not make it. I need to help. I need to try to stop this. Because if I don't, I'm going to live the rest of my life with regret. I need to be by Sam and Dean's sides facing this threat down." Elena explained.

"Why?" Stefan asked.

She smiled sadly, stepping back to stand with the brothers.

"Because I love them… as much as I love all of you. And if it was you who was in danger, I wouldn't hesitate to do the same for you." she said.

They couldn't argue with that. Elena waved goodbye to them before walking to the Impala and climbing in.

"Bobby has a case for us." Dean said as they drove out of Mystic Falls.

"Already?" Elena sighed.

"Yep. It seems to be pretty interesting too." Sam said.

"Every time you say that, I end up covered in blood." Elena reminded them.

"Yeah well… it's interesting to see your reaction." Dean shrugged, grinning over at her.

* * *

Elena looked up at the hospital, wondering what crazy case they would see this time before she walked inside following Sam and Dean.

"Agents Page and Plant, FBI." Dean said as they pulled out their badges to show to the doctor.

"This is our analyst, Olivia Sharpe." Sam said, gesturing to her as she showed the man her ID.

"Gentlemen. Miss Sharpe. What brings you by?" the doctor nodded at them.

"We need to see Amber Freer's body." Sam said.

"Really? What for?" he asked, sounding surprised.

"The police report said something clawed through her skull?" Dean asked.

"You didn't read the autopsy report that I emailed out this morning?" the man asked, staring suspiciously at them.

"We had server issues." Elena said, smiling at him.

The doctor nodded before turning to walk off, gesturing for him to follow him to the morgue. Elena stood back a little bit as he pulled open one of the freezers and pulled out a slab. He tossed the sheet back from her head to reveal long scratched on her scalp.

"When they brought her in, we thought she was attacked by a wolf or something." The doctor said.

"Or something." Dean nodded, squinting at them.

"But we were wrong." The doctor said, picking up a plastic bag to show to them.

"Is that a…" Elena trailed off, walking up to look at it.

"It's a press-on nail. We found it in her temporal lobe." The doctor said.

"Is that even possible?" Sam questioned, tilting his head to the side.

"Wait, are you… you saying that she did this to herself?" Dean said skeptically.

"Uh-huh. She scratched her brains out. It'd take hours, and it'd hurt like hell, but sure… it's possible." The doctor shrugged.

"How?" Elena asked.

"Pick your acronym… OCD, PCP. It all spells crazy." He said.

Sam pulled the sheet back further to reveal Amber's hands. Her right hand was missing a nail.

"My guess, some kind of phantom itch. I mean, an extreme case, but..."

"Phantom itch?" Sam said.

"Yup." He nodded, pulling the sheet back over her head and sliding the slab back into the freezer.

"All it takes is someone talking about an itch…" he said, closing the door. "… or thinking about one, even… and suddenly you can't stop scratching."

Elena smiled at him.

"Thanks, doc." Sam said.

She looked over at them to see Sam scratching at his collar and Dean scratching his ear.

"You don't seem too disturbed by this." the doctor said, leaning forward to talk to Elena.

She shrugged.

"I've seen worse."

* * *

"Okay. Okay, now, some of these questions might seem a bit odd, but please just bear with us." Sam said calmly to the family.

Dean was sitting with him as they interviewed the family of the boy that Amber was babysitting when she died. Elena was wandering around behind them, trying to fade into the background. It was hard with the perverted father's eyes following her no matter where she went. He'd been doing so since she walked in, no matter how many times she gave him the cold shoulder.

"Have you noticed any cold spots in the house?" Sam asked.

"Uh... no." the father said, his eyes finally going to Dean and Sam.

"Okay, uh, what about strange smells?" Dean asked.

Elena walked around the corner of the living room into the entry way to find the kid, Jimmy, sitting on the chairs.

"Hey. You listening in?" she asked, leaning against the door.

Jimmy nodded, looking up at her.

"Whatcha lookin' for?" he asked.

"I don't know yet." She shrugged, walking up to him and sitting next to him on the stairs.

"So, Amber was your babysitter?" Elena asked.

"Yes, ma'am." Jimmy nodded.

"Call me Olivia. So was she a good babysitter?" she asked.

Jimmy hesitated before shaking his head.

"Yeah, most of my babysitters sucked. When I was younger, I promised myself that I would be a babysitter and that I would be the best babysitter ever. I only babysat for a few months, though. It wasn't my thing." Elena said, smiling over at him.

Jimmy avoided her eyes and she sighed.

"Did you see anything strange that night?" she asked.

"No, ma… Olivia." He said, still avoiding her gaze.

Elena raised her eyebrow doubtfull.

"You sure about that?" she asked skeptically.

"I… I would tell you if I knew something." He stammered, looking over at her. "I promise. One hundred percent. Cross my heart." He said desperately.

Elena sighed and leaned in close to him.

"Well, Jimmy, I happen to know you're lying." she said softly.

"I'm not." He said quickly.

"Jimmy, I promise you won't get in trouble if you just tell the truth. If you keep lying… well we're gonna have to take you down to the station and you might get in trouble with the police." Elena said, pursing her lips slightly.

His eyes widened and he immediately opened his mouth to spill everything.

* * *

"JImmy said he put this on the babysitter's hairbrush." Elena said, handing them the itching powder as they walked out of the house.

"There's no way itching powder made that girl scratch her brains out. It's just ground-up maple seeds." Sam scoffed, shaking his hed.

"If you have any other theories, I'm open to 'em." Dean shrugged, sounding as though he believed it.

As they approached the Impala, Sam's phone rang. He answered it as he opened the door for Elena to climb in the passenger's seat.

"Yeah? Yeah, we'll be right there." Sam nodded, climbing into the backseat.

"What is it?" Dean asked.

"There was an accident at the hospital. Another weird one." Sam explained.

* * *

At the far end of the hallway, they could see a nurse zipping up a bodybag with a disgusted look on her face. They approached the same doctor as before.

"What happened?" Sam asked as they stood in front of him.

"Guy got electrocuted." The doctor said, gesturing to the room where the smell of cooked meat was wafting out of it.

Elena grimaced slightly.

"Any idea how?" Dean asked.

"Eh, maybe a loose wire or a piece of equipment shorted out. So far, we haven't found anything." The doctor shrugged.

"Witnesses?" Sam asked.

"Yeah, guy in there… Mr. Stanley." The doctor gestured to the room next door to it. "He was originally in that room but we moved him for obvious reasons. He says he saw it, but he's not making a lick of sense. Senile."

Elena turned to Sam and Dean and they nodded at her. She entered the room and caught sight of an older man sitting there looking out the window.

"Mr. Stanley?" she asked, squatting next to him.

"It was just a joke. I didn't know it would really work." He said, looking down at her with wide eyes.

"What would work?"

"All I did was shake his hand." Mr. Stanley said, holding out a joy buzzer.

Elena reached out and hesitantly took it from his hand.

"It wasn't your fault, Mr. Stanley. I'm sure that it's just a faulty toy." She said, smiling at him as she grabbed a towel and wrapped it in the towel.

She turned to see Sam and Dean standing there with matched perplexions. Elena stood and walked to them.

"You wanted interesting… you got it." she said, holding the towel out to Sam.

* * *

Elena stood a little ways back as Sam and Dean looked down at an uncooked ham. Dean was holding the joy buzzer and had on an apron and goggles.

"You ready?" Dean said, looking around at them.

"Hit it, Mr. Wizard." Sam nodded, holding another pair of goggles.

Elena winced as Dean pressed the buzzer to the ham. Electricity crackled and steam began to rise from the ham as it changed color all the way to black. Dean pulled away after a few minutes and they pulled off their goggles as the ham sizzled.

"That'll do, pig." Dean said, both of the brother gawking at the ham.

"What the hell?" Elena muttered, walking forward.

"That crap isn't supposed to work." Sam said.

"This thing doesn't even have batteries." Dean said, tossing the buzzer onto the table and taking off the gloves.

"So... so, what? Are… are we looking at cursed objects?" Sam guessed.

"Sounds good." Dean nodded, pulling out a knife and flipping it open to cut a piece off the ham. "Maybe there's a powerful witch in town."

They looked at him as he took a bite of the piece of ham.

"Is there any link between the, uh, the joy buzzer and the itching powder?" he asked with a full mouth before cutting another piece off.

"Uh, one was made in China, the other Mexico, but they were both bought from the same store." Sam said.

"Hmm." Dean nodded, taking another few bites.

Sam shook his head as Elena rolled her eyes.

* * *

Elena could practically feel Dean vibrating with excitement as they walked into the store. His hand was holding hers as he dragged her around the store and gawked around at the toys and pranks. She smiled at him, shaking her head and rolling her eyes as he excitedly told her how he would always play pranks on Sam. But she loved seeing this side of him. It was more carefree and childish. It was nice that he was still able to act like that despite everything that was happening.

"Sam!" Dean exclaimed excitedly, picking up a whoopee cushion.

Sam sighed and shook his head but she could see the smile on his face as well at Dean's happiness. Dean looked at her with pleading eyes and she sighed.

"You want to get it?" she asked.

"More than anything." He said.

Elena grinned and tilted her head to the side.

"Well I'm not gonna stop you." she said, gesturing to the counter.

He grinned happily and pulled her in, placing a quick kiss on her lips.

"I love you." he said and Elena could tell that he was fighting the urge to jump up and down excitedly.

"I know you do. I love you too." She said, ushering him to the counter as the owner appeared.

"Welcome to the Conjurarium, sanctum of magic and mystery." He said, gesturing widely.

"You sold any itching powder or joy buzzers lately?" Dean asked.

"Yeah, a grand total of one of each. They aren't exactly big-ticket items. Look, you boys here to buy something or what?" the owner asked.

Dean threw the whoopee cushion on the counter and held out some cash. Sam looked at her with an exasperated expression and she shrugged as if to say, 'what can you do'.

"So, you get many customers?" Sam asked as Dean shoved the toy into his pocket.

"Kids come in. They don't buy much, but they're more than happy to break stuff. These days, all they care about are their iPhones and those kissing-vampire movies. The whole thing makes me just…" he cut off, shaking his head.

"Angry?" Elena guessed.

The owner paused before nodding. "Yeah. Yeah, I am angry. This shop has been my life for twenty years, and now it's wasting away to nothing." He snapped.

"Which is why you hate them." Dean said, nodding.

"I suppose." He shrugged, wondering where they were going with this.

"You wish there was something you could do about it." Elena said.

"Yeah, I guess I do." He said, his eyes flashing between them.

"So you're taking revenge." Sam said as Dean pulled a rubber chicken off the display and slapped it onto the counter.

"With this." Dean said, holding up the joy buzzer and pressing it to the rubber toy.

Electricity crackled as the thing began melting. The owner yelped and jumped back but all of them stared at him, not even flinching as Dean pulled the buzzer away.

"Oh! No!" he cried, watching as it melted down to a puddle of goo.

The owner stared at it, making inarticulate noises that made them all stare at him questioningly.

"Yeah, something tells me this guy is not a powerful witch." Sam guessed.

"Sorry about that, sir." Elena said as they turned to walk out.

* * *

"A tulpa." Dean said.

"Maybe. But why would the toys be killing them instead of the actual creature?" Sam asked.

"True. I guess all we got is a witch." Dean said.

"Who is it, though? We've already gone to the toy shop owner and neither of the vics have a connection to each other." Elena said from where she was lying on the bed.

Dean and Sam were sitting at the table researching things on their computers.

"Maybe we should just get some sleep tonight and we'll go interview the people that were closest to the victims tomorrow, see if they know anything." Elena suggested.

They looked over at her and sighed before nodding.

"How come you have the best ideas out of any of us?" Dean asked, sinking into the bed next to her.

"Because you need someone to have good ideas or you two would be screwed." Elena said, smiling.

"Hmm… that's true." He murmured as they snuggled into the bed.

* * *

"_What do you want from me? I don't want you in my head! Get out!" she snapped, glaring at him as he sat in front of her._

"_And yet… here I am." Lucifer said, smirking._

"_I am not going to help you do anything. I'm not going to help you get Sam. I'm not going to help you destroy this world. I'm not on your side. I'm on the good side." Elena stressed, pacing._

"_Are you so certain the side of the angels is the good side? Look what they're doing to you. Look what you're facing in… oh… ten days?" Lucifer shrugged._

"_Go to hell. I'm not on their side. I'm on Sam and Dean's side. I'm on Cas' side. I'm on Gabriel's side." She shot back._

"_Oh yes, Castiel. He's never disappointed you, has he?" Lucifer asked._

"_He fell from heaven for us. So no, I'm not disappointed in him." Elena said._

"_He never asked you to do something that was against your values? Something that was against human nature itself? He never wanted you to destroy an entire town?" _

"_That was different. He was taking orders then. He would never ask us to do something like that now. He knows…"_

_Lucifer cut her off with his laughing._

"_I guess we'll see which one of us is right and which one is wrong."_

* * *

Elena grimaced as they stared into the hospital room that held another victim. This time it was a man with all of his teeth pulled.

"What's up with Toothless? Cavity creeps get ahold of him?" Dean asked as Sam walked out from the room.

"Yeah. Close. He wrote up a description." Sam said, looking down at his notebook. "Five foot ten, three hundred fifty pounds, wings, and a pink tutu. Said it was the tooth fairy."

Elena and stared at him with their eyebrows raised.

"So he's obviously whacked out on painkillers." Dean suggested.

"Maybe. Whatever it was got past locked doors and windows without triggering the alarm." Sam said.

"Come on. Tooth fairy?" Dean scoffed.

"And it left thirty-two quarters underneath his pillow. One for each tooth." Sam said, making Elena consider that the man might have been telling the truth.

"Well, I will see your crazy and raise you some. There's a couple of kids upstairs with stomach ulcers… say they got it from mixing Pop Rocks and Coke. Another guy... his face... froze that way." Dean said as they walked down the corridor towards the exit.

"What way?" Sam asked, confused.

Dean stopped and looked all over the place before pulling his cheeks out and crossing his eyes.

"He, uh, held it too long, and it… it stuck. They're flying in a plastic surgeon." Dean explained once he let it go.

"So, I mean, if you add all that up..." Elena said.

She hesitated as Dean raised his eyebrows and Sam searched his mind for something.

"I got nothing." Sam shrugged.

They started back down the hallway.

"I thought sea-monkeys were real." Dean said randomly.

"They are. They're brine shrimp." Sam said.

"No, no, no, I mean like in the ads. You know, like the sea-monkey wife cooks the pot roast for the sea-monkey husband, and the sea-monkey kids play with the dog in a sea-monkey castle… real. I mean, I was six, but I believed it." Dean shrugged.

"Okay…" Elena said as they stopped once they got outside.

"Point is... maybe that's the connection. The tooth fairy, the Pop Rocks and Coke, the joy buzzer that shocks you—they're all lies that kids believe." Dean said.

"And now they're coming true." Elena nodded, realizing that he had a point.

"Okay, so whatever's doing this is… is reshaping reality. It has the powers of a god. Or…" Sam trailed off, looking at Elena hesitantly.

"Or what?" she asked, urging him to finish his sentence.

"… of a trickster." He shrugged.

"No." she said, shaking her head.

"It's his kind of thing." Dean shrugged.

"Killing a perfectly nice teenage babysitter? Gabriel does some ridiculous shit but he doesn't kill innocent young women. It's not him." Elena said.

Sam and Dean exchanged a wary look.

"Besides, he's got more important things to worry about than making a bunch of pranks and urban legends come alive." Elena said, turning to walk to the car.

"Yeah, cause he didn't have more important things to worry about when he imprisoned us in TV land." Dean scoffed.

Elena gave him a look and he shut up, nodding as they walked to the Impala.

"Whatever this is has the sense of humor of a nine-year-old." Dean said as he started the car.

"Or you." Sam said, making Elena smirk.

* * *

Elena sat at the table across from Dean eating sandwiches along with him. When Sam walked in holding a map, they looked up at him.

"Seriously… still with the ham?" Sam said, looking at Elena as though he expected better from her.

"We don't have a fridge." Dean said through a mouthful of ham.

"And it's delicious." Elena nodded, smiling at him.

Sam rolled his eyes as he walked to the table and set a map down.

"Well, I found something." He announced.

They stood up and leaned over him to get a better view.

He pointed at one of the red x's on the map.

"Um, tooth fairy attack was here, Pop Rocks and Coke was here, then you've got itching powder, face freeze, and joy buzzer… all located within a two-mile radius." He explained.

"So, we got a blast zone of weird, and inside, fantasy becomes reality." Dean said.

"Looks like." Sam nodded.

"And what's the A-bomb at its center?"

"Four acres of farmland... and a house." Sam said, pointing to the exact center.

* * *

As they approached the abandoned looking house, Sam bent down to pick the lock. Elena rolled her eyes and reached past him, knocking on the door. Sam and Dean looked at her with surprise as it opened.

"Can I help you?" A little boy asked, looking up at them.

"Hi. Uh, what's your name?" Sam said as he stood up.

"Who wants to know?" he demanded.

Sam and Dean glanced at each other as Elena smiled and stepped forward.

"We're from the FBI." Elena said, gesturing for Sam and Dean to show him their ID's.

"Let me see that." the kid said, taking Dean's back and examining it.

Elena smiled, amused, as he handed it back.

"Are your parents home?" Dean asked.

"They work." He answered.

"Well, you mind if we ask you a few questions, maybe take a look around the house?" Sam asked.

"I don't know." He said hesitantly.

"Come on. You can trust us. We're the authorities." Dean said, holding up his badge again.

The little boy had an unimpressed look as he glanced between Dean and Sam, who were mustering up their best reassuring smiles. He finally nodded and stepped aside, letting them in. He led them to the kitchen where a pot of soup was boiling on the stove. Dean hung back a little as Sam and Elena walked in.

"What's that?" Sam asked.

"It's called soup." The kid said, pulling the pot off of the soap. "You heat it up and you eat it."

Sam and Elena both laughed.

"Right. I, I know. It's just, um... I used to make my own dinner, too, when I was a kid." Sam nodded.

"Well, I'm not a kid." The boy said as Dean looked at the artwork on the fridge.

"Right. No, I, I know. Um..." Sam nodded.

Elena held out a hand to him.

"I'm Olivia. This is Robert." She said, shaking his hand.

"Jesse." The boy nodded at him.

"Jesse, nice to meet you." Sam said, shaking his head.

Dean stepped up to them holding a picture of a bearded man with pink wins and a tutu.

"Did you draw this?" he asked, placing it on the table.

Jesse nodded, staring at it.

"It's the tooth fairy." He said.

"That's what you think the tooth fairy looks like, huh?" Dean asked as Elena sat at the table with Jesse.

"Yeah. My dad told me about him." Jesse said.

Dean glanced at Sam and Elena with a nod.

"What, didn't your dad tell you about the tooth fairy?" the young boy asked.

"My dad?" Dean chuckled, shaking his head. "My dad told me different stories."

"Well, the tooth fairy isn't a story." Jesse said positively.

Elena looked at him with a squint before opening her mouth.

"What do you know about itching powder, Jesse?" she asked.

"That stuff will make you scratch your brains out." he said, wide-eyed.

"Pop Rocks and Coke?" Dean questioned.

"You mix them, and you'll end up in the hospital. Everyone knows that." he shrugged.

Dean reached down and pulled the buzzer out of his pocket, holding it up so that Jesse could see.

"You shouldn't have that." Jesse warned him.

"Why not?" he asked.

"It can electrocute you."

"Actually, it can't. It's just a wind-up toy. It's totally harmless. Doesn't even have batteries." Elena said, leaning forward on her elbows.

"So it can't shock you?" Jesse asked uncertainly.

"Nope. Not at all. I swear." Dean nodded.

"Oh. Okay." Jesse said, sounding mostly convinced.

"I mean, all it does is just shake in your hand. It's kind of lame. See?" Dean pressed the joy buzzer to Sam's chest.

Elena flinched as it buzzed and Sam stiffened, turning to glare at Dean. His glare was murderous but he was unharmed.

* * *

"Dude, what the hell?" Sam snapped as they walked out of the house.

"I had a hunch. I went with it." Dean shrugged.

"You risked my ass on a hunch?" he growled.

"You're fine. Plus Elena would have healed you." Dean reminded him.

Elena sighed as she walked behind them, sticking her hands into the coat she was wearing.

"Besides, now we know who's turning this town into Willy Wonka's worst nightmare." Dean said.

"The kid." Sam nodded.

They stopped walking and Elena stumbled into Dean, glaring at them when she did so.

"A little advanced warning for the girl in heels next time?" she asked.

Dean and Sam looked at her before turning back to their conversation.

"Yeah. Everything Jesse believes comes true. He thinks the tooth fairy looks like Belushi, uh, joy buzzers really shock people, boom, that's what happens." Dean explained.

"Yeah, but convince him the joy buzzers don't actually work, and they go from killing machines back into crap toys." Sam nodded.

"He probably doesn't even know he's doing it." Elena said as they all looked back at the house to see Jesse watching them from the window.

"How is he doing it?" Dean asked as they waved back at him.

* * *

"So, dug up what I could on Jesse Turner. It's not much. Uh, B student, won last year's Pinewood Derby. But get this. Jesse was adopted. His birth records are sealed." Sam said as they all lounged around the motel room.

Elena was lying on her stomach putting her most recently developed pictures from their most recent trip ino the photo albums.

"So you unsealed them, and?" Dean asked.

"There's no father listed, but Jesse's biological mom is named Julia Wright. She lives in Elk Creek, on the other side of the state." Sam informed them.

"So we go find her." Dean sighed, leaning back on the pillows.

"It's our best bet to see what's going on with this kid." Sam said.

* * *

Elena walked slightly in front of the boys, pushing open the gate while ignoring the **No Trespassing** sign. She looked around the overgrown yard and the deserted area around the house with interest. When they walked up to the door, Dean leaned forward to ring the doorbell. They were in casual clothing but they were going to introduce themselves as the FBI.

"Whatever you're selling, I'm not interested." A female voice said.

"We're not salesmen. Agents Page and Plant, FBI." Dean announced.

Dean and Sam pulled out their badges and held them up to the peephole.

"Who's the girl?" she demanded.

"She's our analyst." Dean said as Elena pulled out her ID as well.

"Put your badge in the slot. Your partner's, too." She demanded.

They shove them in and waited until the door unlocked and opened. She handed them back their ID's. The woman looked sickly and terrified.

"What do you want?" Julie Wright demanded.

"We just had a few questions. About your son." Sam said.

"I don't have a son." She replied, shaking her head.

"He was born March 29, 1998, in Omaha." Elena said.

Julie looked up at them, her face emotionless.

"You put him up for adoption?" Sam said questioningly.

"What about him?" she sighed, crossing her arms.

"We were just wondering, um, was it... was it a normal pregnancy?" Sam asked hesitantly.

Julia remained silent, staring at them with a hint of fear in her eyes.

"Was there anything strange?" Dean asked, staring at her suspiciously.

She suddenly slammed the door in their faces.

"Stay away from me!" she screamed.

"Mrs. Wright, wait!" Dean yelled, shoving the door open as they followed her inside. "We just want to talk!"

She ran off and when they followed her into the kitchen, they were showered with a canister of table salt.

Julia stared at them as they stared back, trying to shake the salt out of their clothing.

"You're not demons?" she said quietly.

"How do you know about demons?" Dean asked, staring at her.

* * *

They were sitting at the dining table with tea and coffe as Julie spok nervously.

"I was possessed. A demon took control of my body, and I hurt people. I killed people." She explained.

"That… that wasn't you." Sam said, shaking his head.

"But I was there. I heard a woman beg for mercy. I... felt a young girl's blood drip down my hands." Julia explained.

"That's how you knew about the salt." Dean nodded.

"Yeah, I picked up tricks. It was in my head for months."

"How many months?" Dean asked.

"Nine." Julia answered, her eyes dropping.

"So your son..." Sam trailed off, realizing the truth at the same time as Dean and Elena.

"Yeah, the whole time. The pregnancy, birth… all of it. I was possessed. The night the baby was born, I was alone. And the pain was… the pain was overwhelming. I… I screamed, and it came out a laugh, because the demon was happy. It used my body to give birth to a child. When it was over, something changed. Maybe the… the demon was tired or if the pain helped me fight it, but... somehow, I took control."

Elena watched her relive her past with sympathetic eyes.

"And the demon wailed inside me. It pounded against my skull. I thought my head was gonna explode. But I knew. I knew what I had to do. I poured salt down my throat and it left. It was gone and… and when I was alone with the baby... a part of me...part of me wanted to kill it. But, God help me, I couldn't do that. So, I put it up for adoption, and I ran." She explained.

"Who was the father?" Dean asked.

"I was a virgin." Julia shot back.

Dean and Sam exchanged a look as Elena leaned forward.

"Have you seen my son? Is he human?" Julia asked.

"His name's Jesse. He lives in Alliance. He's a good kid." Elena assured her.

Julia nodded and sat back with her hands shaking.

"So, now what?" Sam asked as they walked out of the house.

"We need help." Dean and Elena said at the same time.

* * *

"_Let me guess, you want this kid." Elena said as she walked around the same room._

"_Bingo." Lucifer replied._

"_Why? Why have one of your demons impregnate a human?" she demanded, turning to look at him._

"_Is, 'because it was fun', not a good answer?" he asked._

_She narrowed her eyes at him._

"_Don't worry, you'll know why soon. What I want to talk about is how you…" he pointed at her with a smirk. "… are going to bring the boy to me."_

_Elena stared at him for a moment before laughing._

"_You really think I'm going to bring some innocent boy to you?" she scoffed._

"_Innocent? I hardly think so. How many people has he killed now?" Lucifer reminded her._

"_It's not his fault. I'm not bringing him to you." She snapped._

"_But I don't want to kill him. I don't want to harm him at all. Trust me when I say that if the angels find out about this boy, he'll be on top of their kill list and they will want you to do it." he said._

"_I won't let them kill him either." Elena said._

"_Oh yeah? Are you willing to stand up to your precious Castiel?" Lucifer asked._

_Elena hesitated, staring at him._

"_Just bring him to me. I will make sure that he is taken care of." He offered._

"_No." she growled._

"_Hmm… we'll see." He shrugged._

* * *

Elena rubbed her head frustratingly as they entered the room. She was going to tell them about her dreams once the case was over but for now they had to worry about Jesse. She looked up in time to see Cas standing in the room.

"I take it you got our message." Sam said, sitting at the table as Dean closed the door and Elena sat on the bed to pull her shoes off.

"It's lucky you found the boy." Cas said.

"Oh, yeah, real lucky. What do we do with him?" Dean asked, standing there with his arms crossed.

"Kill him."

Elena's head snapped up as Sam paused in the middle of loosening his tie. They all stared at him as he stared back. She could practically hear Lucifer laughing.

"Cas..." Dean began.

"This child is half demon and half human, but it's far more powerful than either." Cas interrupted him, walking to sit at the table. "Other cultures call this hybrid cambion or katako. You know him as the antichrist."

He sat down and suddenly a loud noise filled the air. Elena bit her lip to keep from laughing as the noise from the whoopee cushion continued. Castiel shifted uncomfortably as Dean and Sam kept stone faces.

"That wasn't me." Cas said once it ended, pulling the toy out from underneath him.

Elena and Sam turned to look at Dean.

"Who put that there?" Dean said, unable to keep from smiling.

"Anyway, I don't get it. Jesse is the devil's son?" Sam asked.

Cas sighed, shaking his head.

"No, of course not. Your Bible gets more wrong than it does right. The antichrist is not Lucifer's child. It's just demon spawn. But it is one of the devil's greatest weapons in the war against heaven." He explained.

"Well, if Jesse's a demonic howitzer, then what the hell's he doing in Nebraska?" Dean demanded as Elena watched warily, Lucifer's words echoing in her mind.

"The demons lost him. They can't find him. But they're looking." Cas explained.

"And they lost him because?" Sam asked.

"Because of the child's power. It hides him from both angels and demons. For now." The angel said.

"So he's got, like, a force field around him. Well, that's great. Problem solved." Dean shrugged.

"With Lucifer risen, this child grows strong. Soon, he will do more than just make a few toys come to life—something that will draw the demons to him. The demons will find this child. Lucifer will twist this boy to his purpose. And then, with a word, this child will destroy the Host of Heaven."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Wait. You're saying that… that Jesse's gonna nuke the angels?" Dean said.

"We cannot allow that to happen." Cas said, standing up.

"Wait." Sam protested, standing up as well. "We're the good guys. We don't just… kill children."

"A year ago, you would have done whatever it took to win this war." Cas said, turning to face him.

Sam looked taken aback at his bluntness.

"Things change." He sighed.

Elena stepped forward, putting herself between the brothers and Castiel.

"We're not going to kill him, Cas." She said.

He stared at her, squinting.

"She's right but we can't leave Jesse here either. We know that. So... we take him to Bobby's. He'll know what to do." Dean said, stepping up beside her.

"You'll kidnap him? What is going on in this town, it's what happens when this thing is happy. You cannot imagine what it will do if it's angry. Besides, how will you hold him? With a thought, he could be halfway around the world." Castiel snapped.

"So we…" Dean searched for another option.

"So we tell him the truth. You say Jesse's destined to go dark side… fine. But he hasn't yet. So if we lay it all out for him… what he is, the apocalypse, everything… he might make the right choice." Sam suggested.

There was a long pause as they all considered it. Elena didn't think it was a terrible idea.

"You didn't. And I can't take that chance." Cas said.

Elena glared at him as he vanished.

"Damn it." Sam sighed.

"Come on, we have to go." Elena said, yanking her boots back on.

"Elena…" Dean began.

"I am not going to let Cas kill Jesse." She snapped.

* * *

Jesse was getting a cup of water from the fridge when Castiel appeared. He gasped, dropping the glass as he backed away.

"Don't be afraid. I won't hurt you." Cas assured him, advancing on him as he held the demon-killing knife behind his back.

"Mom! Dad!" Jesse called, panicked.

"Your mother and father are sleeping. I assure you, they won't wake until morning." The angel said.

Jesse breathed hard as Castiel backed him into the corner.

"I'm sorry." He said regretfully as he raised the knife.

A loud noise sounded as Dean and Sam kicked in the front door. Jesse stared at him as they took in the scene before him. Elena ran in to look around.

"Where is Cas?" Dean wondered.

"Was there a guy here? In a trench coat?" Sam asked.

Jesse looked at them with wide eyes before pointing at the floor. Dean bent down and picked the figure up, revealing that it was an action figure wearing Cas' outfit and holding a silver knife. They all exchanged wide eyed looks before looking back at Jesse.

* * *

Elena sat on the couch with Jesse as Dean set the Castiel action figure on the mantle and Sam sat in the chair.

"Was he your friend?" Jesse asked, looking up at Dean.

"Him? No." Dean said, shaking his head emphatically as if he was afraid he'd share the same fate if he admitted that Cas was with them.

"I did that. But how did I do that?" the young boy asked, looking at Elena.

"You're a superhero." Elena said the first thing that came to her mind, looking at Dean for help.

"I am?" Jesse asked with wide eyes

"Yeah. Yeah. I mean, who else could turn someone into a toy? You're Superman… minus the cape and the go-go boots. See, my… my partners and I, we work for a secret government agency. It's our job to find kids with special powers. In fact, we're here to take you to a hidden base in South Dakota, where you'll be trained to fight evil." Dean said, kneeling next to him.

"Like the X-Men?" Jesse asked, a little bit excited.

"Exactly like the X-Men." Dean chuckled as Elena smiled down at the young boy.

"In fact, the, uh, guy we're taking you to… he's even in a wheelchair. You'll be a hero. You'll save lives. You'll get the girl. Sounds like fun, right?" Dean asked.

Suddenly he flew backwards and was pinned against the wall. They all whirled around to see Julia enter the room with black eyes.

"They're lying to you." she said.

Sam jumped up suddenly and the demon flung him against the wall as well.

"Stay right there, dreamboat. Can't hurt you. Orders." The demon said.

Elena stood up slowly, glaring at her. The demon concentrated for a moment before looking disappointed.

"Lost your mojo?" Elena asked, smirking.

"What are you?" the demon demanded, walking forward.

"Leave him alone!" Jesse shouted, walking to stand in front of Elena.

She began to pull him backwards but he wouldn't budge.

The demon leaned down to squant in front of him.

"Jesse. You're beautiful. You have your father's eyes." she said sweetly.

"Who are you?" Jesse demanded, glaring at her.

"I'm your mother." She said softly.

"No, you're not." He said, shaking his head.

"Mm-hm. You're half human... half one of us."

"She means demons, Jesse!" Dean yelled as Elena tried to pull Jesse away from the demon as gently as possible.

The demon straightened up and held out her hand, clenching it into a fist as Dean groaned in pain. Elena gave up on getting Jesse out and walked past him to throw the demon against the wall, her hand around its nck.

"Those people you call your parents… they lied to you, too. You're not theirs… not really." She choked out as Elena held her there.

"My mom and dad love me." Jesse argued.

"Do they? Is…" Elena tightened her grip. "… is that why they leave you alone all day? Because they love you so much? These people… these imposters… they told you that the tooth fairy was real and that your toys could hurt you and a hundred other things that aren't true. They love you so much, they made your whole life a lie. Look into your heart, Jesse. You've always known you weren't theirs. You've always known you were different. Everyone has lied to you. They're not FBI agents. And you're not a superhero." The demon wheezed.

"Then what am I?" Jesse asked.

"You're powerful. You can have anything you want. You can do anything you want." The demon said with a smile, her hand coming up to break Elena's hold.

She couldn't, though. Elena was too strong.

"Don't listen to her, Jesse!" Elena growled through gritted teeth.

"They treated you like a child. Nobody trusted you. Everybody's lied to you. Doesn't that make you angry?" the demon asked.

The room suddenly began rattling and the lights flickered as the demon grinned.

"See? It does make you angry. But I'm telling you the truth, Jesse." The demon said as things began to shatter.

"Wouldn't it be better if there were no lies? Come with me and you can wash it all clean. Start over. Imagine that… a world without lies." The demon said.

"She's right. We lied to you." Sam said and Elena looked back at him as Jesse did the same. "But I'll tell you the truth."

The demon raised a fist despite the fact that Elena was holding her in a death grip. Sam choked on something but continued to speak.

"I just want... to tell..." he choked out as Elena turned back to attack the demon.

"Stop it." Jesse said.

She heard a thump and turned to see Sam crumpled on the floor gasping in breaths. The demon took her momentary distraction to shove her off.

"I want to hear what he has to say." Jesse said, turning and freezing the demon in place.

"You're stronger than I thought." The demon said, smiling at Jesse.

"We lied to you. And I'm sorry. So here's the truth. I'm Sam Winchester. That's my brother, Dean. This is Elena. W… we hunt monsters." Dean said.

"Except when you are the monster. Right, Sammy?" the demon taunted.

"And that woman right there, her name is Julia. She's your mother. But the thing inside of her, the thing that you're talking to… it's a demon." Sam said as Elena backed away to stand beside him.

Dean was still frozen to the wall.

"A demon?" Jesse asked.

"He's done nothing but lie to you since the moment you met him. Don't listen to him. Punish him." the demon snapped.

"Sit down and shut up." Jesse said.

A chair scooted up behind the demon and forced her to sit in it. She struggled to speak but nothing came out. Jesse turned to look at Dean and he dropped to the ground as well, standing up to stand beside Elena.

"There's, uh, kind of a...a war between angels and demons, and... you're a part of it." Sam explained as they stood there.

"I'm just a kid." Jesse said, shaking his head.

"You can go with her if you want. I can't stop you. No one can. But if you do... millions of people will die." Sam explained.

"She said I was half demon. Is that true?" Jesse asked.

"Yes. But you're half human, too. You can do the right thing. You've got choices, Jesse. But if you make the wrong ones, it'll haunt you for the rest of your life." Sam sighed.

"Why are you telling me this?!" Jesse yelled as lights flickered again.

"Because I have to believe someone can make the right choice, even if I couldn't." Sam said, trying to convince him.

Jesse stared at them for a moment before clenching his fists and looking back at the demon.

"Get out of her." he said through gritted teeth.

The chair suddenly flew back against the wall and black smoke poured out of Julia's mouth, vanishing up the chimney.

"How did you do that?" Dean said, his eyes wide.

"I just did." Jesse shrugged, turning back to them.

"Kid... you're awesome." Dean said with a smile.

* * *

"Is she gonna be all right?" Jesse asked, looking at Julia who was unconscious in the chair.

"Eventually." Elena said, checking her pulse to find that it was steady.

Dean leaned down and picked up the Castiel action figure that had fallen off the mantel.

"Look, uh, truth is, he's kind of a buddy of ours. Is there any way you could turn him back?" Dean asked, holding up the figure.

"He tried to kill me." Jesse argued.

"Right. Uh. But he's a… he's a good guy. He was just confused." Dean said.

Jesse stared at him, saying nothing.

"Okay. It's been a long night. We'll... talk about it later." Dean nodded, putting it back on the mantel.

"What now?" Jesse asked.

"Now we take you someplace safe, get you trained up. You'd be handy in a fight, kid." Dean said.

Elena narrowed her eyes at him, walking to lean against the doorway as she considered her options. Lucifer wanted the kid. If he knew that they had possession of him, he would keep plaguing her dreams. He would keep wanting her to bring Jesse to him.

"What if I don't want to fight?" Jesse asked.

"Jesse." Sam sighed, walking forward to squat in front of him. "You're powerful. More powerful than... pretty much anything we've ever seen. That makes you…"

"A freak." Jesse interrupted.

"To some people, maybe. But not to us. See, we're kind of freaks ourselves." Sam said, gesturing around at them.

"I can't stay here, can I?" Jesse asked sadly.

"No. The demons know where you are, and more will be coming." Dean said.

"I won't go without my mom and dad." The young boy said, sounding scared.

"There's nothing more important than family. We get that. And if you really want to take them with you, we'll back your play. But you got to understand… it's gonna be dangerous for them, too." Sam said.

"What do you mean?" Jesse asked with wide eyes.

"Our dad... he would take us with him wherever he went." Dean explained.

"Where is he now?"

"Dead. A demon killed him." Sam said.

"Look, Jesse..." Dean leaned down to look at him as well. "… once you're in this fight... you're in it till the end, win or lose." He explained.

"What should I do?" Jesse asked.

"We can't tell you. It's your choice. It's not fair. I know." Sam sighed.

Jesse looked over at Elena for help. She bit her lip and walked forward, holding out her hand.

"Let's go see your parents. Maybe seeing them will help you make your decision." She said.

He took it and Elena nodded at Dean and Sam to stay where they were. When they walked upstairs, he opened a door to reveal two people sleeping in a bed. Jesse sighed as he looked at them.

"I don't want to be a bad guy." He said softly.

"I know, Jesse." Elena said, ruffling his hair.

He looked up at her.

"But I don't want to fight either." He said.

Elena stared at him before taking his hand and shutting the door, hurrying him into his room.

"Listen to me, Jesse, you need to go, okay?" she whispered, pulling a bag out and throwing clothes into it.

"What?" He said, alarmed.

"You can't stay, Jesse. There are bad people, worse than demons, after you so you can't come with us, no matter what Dean and Sam say. You're powerful. You can go anywhere you want and you can hide yourself there so that no demons or anyone will ever find you. You have to go." Elena said, shoving the bag at him with the money that she had in her pockets along with it.

"But…" he began.

She knelt down and put her hands on his shoulders.

"You'll be protecting everyone this way, Jesse. You'll protect your parents and you'll protect yourself. That is what is most important. Now go." Elena said.

Jesse glanced up at a poster that had a surfer swimming in Australia on it.

"I always wanted to go there." he said.

"Then go there." she replied with a smile.

He nodded and smiled back.

"Thank you." he said.

"Go." she said before turning away.

When she looked back, he was gone.

* * *

"They've been up there for a long time." Dean said as they approached the stairs.

When they walked into the room, Elena was standing there.

"He's gone." A voice behind them said and they turned to see Cas standing there.

"Where?" Sam asked.

"I don't know. Jesse put everyone in town back to normal… the ones still alive. Then he vanished. Elena knows where he went." They all looked at her.

"I'm not going to tell you." she said, turning to face him.

"Why did you let him go?" Dean asked.

"Because if you were paying attention, you would know that Jesse was never going to make it if we took him with us. Castiel was going to keep trying to kill him. Lucifer…" Elena cut off.

"Lucifer what?" Cas asked, walking forward.

"He wants him. He keeps trying to get me to hand him over." She explained.

"How do you know this?"

"Because… my dreams." Elena said, looking over at Dean.

"You should not have let him go." Cas said.

"And you shouldn't have tried to kill him." she shot back, pushing past them to walk out of the room.

They followed her downstairs and out the door.

"Why didn't you tell me about your dreams?" Dean asked.

"We had other things on our mind, Dean. I wasn't keeping it from you. I was waiting until…" she trailed off.

"Until what? Until we were out of time? Until Zachariah takes you away from us?" Dean demanded.

She turned to face him, ignoring the fact that Sam and Cas were there as well.

"I thought you said there was still hope. That we could figure a way out of this still." She snapped.

"Yeah well you seem to have given up hope." He said, gesturing to her.

Elena shook her head and turned away.

"Let's just get out of here." Sam said, walking forward to stand between them.

* * *

"Should we really be letting her sleep?" Dean wondered, looking back to where Elena was curled up in the backseat sound asleep as they drove down the dark road.

"We're gonna keep her awake all the time? I'm pretty sure she needs sleep, Dean." Sam said.

"She's been sleeping more than normal, though."

* * *

"_You should have known better, Elena." Lucifer said._

_It was his turn to pace as she leaned against the wall._

"_Did you really think that I was going to bring him to you?" Elena asked._

"_I was holding out hope, yes." Lucifer said._

"_Well too damn bad." She snapped._

_He turned to stare at her._

"_You are just going to keep on crossing me, aren't you?" he asked._

"_You can bet on it." she nodded._

_He looked at her for a moment before walking up to her._

"_Then why don't I show you what happens if you keep doing what you're doing." He said, reaching out to touch her forehead._

_Elena screamed as a white light filled the room and pain filled her head._

* * *

Elena's scream filled the car, causing Dean to swerve to the side of the road and slam to a stop. They both jumped at the same time, going to different sides of the backseat and wrenching the door open. Dean clambered in just as she slumped over on the seat.

"Elena? Elena?" he said, holding her upper body as he tried to shake her away.

She just remained limp and unresponsive in his arms.

"Elena!" Dean shouted.

"Is she breathing, Dean?" Sam asked.

Dean felt her nose.

"Barely." He said, looking up at Sam with wide eyes.

"I'll call Cas. You call Gabriel." Sam said.

* * *

**Author's Note: I think I've embraced the fact that I'm evil with these cliffhangers. REVIEW PLEASE! **


	14. Chapter 14

**Disclaimer: I do not own TVD or Supernatural**

**A few things:**

**1. I was not originally intending on writing this chapter but I do have a couple of reasons for doing so. First of all, we're gonna see Winchesters uniting with Cas and Gabriel. This will be interesting and full of sass, I guarantee you. They are not going to have an easy time of doing this. They are doing it to figure out what is going on with Elena. Second of all, I love Lucifer and I kinda wanted an entire chapter revolving around him and Elena and him screwing with Elena. And if Zachariah gets to have his future fun, why doesn't Lucifer?**

**2. On second thought, I apologize in advance for this chapter. I'm running on minimal sleep and this is the product of that. Sorry about this.**

* * *

Her eyes fluttered open. she sat up slowly, wincing as pain shot through her head. She realized that she was not only outside, but she was lying on the side of the road.

"What the…" Elena trailed off, looking down.

She was in the same clothing that she'd been in before. What was happening before? They were in the Impala on their way back to Sioux Falls. She'd fallen asleep.

"_Then why don't I show you what happens if you keep doing what you're doing."_

Lucifer had been in her dream. He was upset that she didn't bring Jesse to him. When she heard rustling, she turned to see a figure standing there. When she squinted up at him, she realized that it was Lucifer.

"What did you do to me?" she demanded.

"I brought you to the future. This is the future. 2015 to be exact." He said, gesturing around.

"Why?" she asked, standing up.

"Because I want you to see what will happen if you keep getting in my way. I want you to see what happens if you don't accept my help." He said, holding a hand out.

Elena stared at him before looking down at his hand. It felt so informal and yet she had to remind herself that this was the damn devil she was talking to.

"I'm not going anywhere with you." she spat, stepping away from him.

"Humor me, Elena. Or I'm never gonna let you out of this world." He threatened, his eyes narrowed at her.

She glared at him.

"You can touch my forehead." She said, squeezing her eyes shut as she clenched her hands into fists.

When she opened them, Elena saw that they were standing in an ornate ballroom of sorts. There were people milling around, all dressed in different styles of formal dress. They looked as though they were waiting on someone.

"What is this?" she asked, confused.

"This is paradise. This is what happens if you continue on the path that you're on."

Elena turned to face him.

"Paradise? That means you've been beaten? I call that a victory." She snapped.

"Oh I wouldn't be so sure. Feel free to wander around. No one can see us." Lucifer said, gesturing around.

Elena looked around to see someone descending the large staircase. It was Zachariah and Raphael. They both looked rather pleased with themselves. Elena glared at them as she walked forward. She noticed the small crowd in the room parting slowly as they looked up at the staircase. She stood aside with them even though she couldn't be seen. When she looked the other way, she saw a throne-like chair at the other end of the room. There were a few other smaller chairs but it was the most impressive chair. When she looked back to the stairs, she saw Zachariah and Raphael walking towards the chairs with pompous expressions. They sat in two chairs on either side of the throne-like chair and another chair that was sitting beside it that was also ornately decorated.

"These are all angels gathered here, in case you haven't figured that out." Lucifer said as he appeared beside her.

"Who sits on the throne?" she asked, genuinly curious as to whether she was about to see God or not.

Lucifer didn't answer, just nodding at the staircase. Anna descended next, her flaming red hair shining the sunlight that was streaming into the room. She was wearing a rather plain cream dress and matching ballet flats. She stood off to the side instead of walking to the chairs as well. When she looked up at the staircase, so did everyone else. Elena's mouth dropped open when she saw who was descending. It was Dean, but he didn't look the same at all. He was wearing a fancy all black suit complete with a black shirt and a black tie. His hair was perfect and his face looked as though it was made of stone, it was so blank.

"Dean?" she murmured.

"You would think so, wouldn't you?" Lucifer said, smirking.

"Michael… it is good to see you back after your extended absence. How was your visit to heaven?" Zachariah asked.

"It was satisfactory." He answered in a low, emotionless voice.

Elena's hand flew to her mouth as she watched him sit in the throne chair, his head leaned back as his arms rested on the armrests.

"Dean said yes?" she whispered.

* * *

"What happened?" Gabriel asked as Dean ran into the house with Elena lying limply in his arms bridal style.

The two angels had showed up on the side of the road and taken them straight to Bobby's.

"She was sleeping and she screamed and then she was like this. We can't get her to wake up and she's barely breathing. Her pulse is slow too." Dean explained as he set her on the couch.

"What's going on?" Bobby asked as he wheeled himself in, surprised to see them there so soon.

Cas and Gabriel immediately shoved Dean out of the way as they bent over her unconscious body.

"It's Elena." Dean said, sounding terrified.

"Has anything strange been happening?" Gabriel asked.

"She's… she's been having dreams." Sam said when Dean was unable to speak anymore as he was pacing.

"About?" Gabriel asked, turning to look at him.

"Lucifer." Cas answered, his hand on Elena's pale cheek.

Gabriel looked back at him, his eyes wide.

"And we didn't want to share this?" he snapped.

"I just found out." Cas shot back.

"So did I." Sam said.

"I knew. I brushed it off. I thought they were just bad dreams… if I'd known…" Dean muttered, his hands running through his hair furiously.

"It ain't your fault, boy." Bobby said.

"Oh sure it is! Why the hell did you think it was a good idea to keep it from us?" Gabriel said in a loud voice.

"I wasn't keeping it from you! How was I supposed to know that the freaking devil was really in her head?" Dean yelled back, glaring at him.

"All right… let me speak slowly so that your half-wit brain can understand. Lucifer. In. Dreams. Is. Never. Good." Gabriel shouted.

"Stop it! This isn't helping her!" Cas yelled over them both, looking angry.

* * *

"Of course he did. What else was he supposed to do? Zachariah whisked you away and he wasn't able to see you. Bobby died. Then Sam died. The world was being overrun with the fight between angels and demons. He wanted it to end. And here we are, paradiso." Lucifer said.

Elena glared at him.

"You son of a bitch. This is your fault." She snapped.

"Didn't I already tell you that this is the end result of your decisions." He shot back.

"Where is my family? Jeremy and Alaric? Caroline? Bonnie?" she demanded.

"Where do you think, Elena?"

Elena opened her mouth to say something spiteful at him but she noticed Michaal straighten up out of the corner of her eye and the sound of heels clicking on the floor. She turned to see someone she didn't expect standing at the top of the staircase. It was herself. She was wearing a beautiful light pink gown with sparkling rhinestones decorating it. Her hair was curly and pulled half up. As she lifted her dress to walk down the stairs, sparkling light pink shoes were visible underneath the dress. When she got down the stairs, she glanced over at Anna. The redhead nodded before falling in line behind her, fixing the train of her dress. Everyone stared at her future self as she walked towards Michael. His eyes were fixed on her as she did so.

"You look lovely, Elena." Zachariah praised her once she reached the chairs.

Elena watched as her future self's eyes flashed with anger but she kept a blank expression.

"Thank you, Zachariah." She said pleasantly.

"Please, sit." Michael said.

She didn't move, instead falling to her knees in front of him. He sighed and shifted in his chair, rolling his eyes as if this was something he'd seen before.

"I beg of you, Michael, for my sake… stop punishing Castiel. Please." Future Elena pleaded.

"And yet again, Elena, I refuse to adhere to your request." Michael replied.

She stared up at him for a moment before a defiant spark rose in her eye. She stood and turned to walk off.

"You won't want to do that, Elena. You know better." Michael said.

She didn't respond to his warning. Suddenly she stopped short and winced, unable to move any further.

"Let me go." she said through gritted teeth.

"Please sit." Michael replied.

Future Elena turned to glare at him before walking to the chair next to him and sitting down gracefully.

"I hate you." she spat.

"I know." Michael replied.

"What happened to Cas?" Elena said, turning to Lucifer and fearing the answer.

Lucifer looked at her for a moment before snapping his fingers. They were in a dungeon of sorts. She heard the sound of fire crackling and immediately knew what it was. She ran towards the sound and saw a horrible sight in one of the cells. Cas was sitting in the middle of a circle of holy fire. He was wearing his trenchcoat but it was dirty and tattered with blood staining it. His head was bowed so she could see the dirt and blood caked in his hair.

"Oh my God." She whimpered, her hands going to her mouth as she stared at the pitiful sight in front of her.

When his head lifted to stare at the spot where she was standing like he could see her, she saw that his eyes were dead. There was no shine to them. His cheeks were sunken and his lips were dry, cracked, and bleeding. There were several bruises and cuts on his pale skin.

"Is someone there?" He asked hoarsely, his voice barely above a whisper as his eyes searched around him.

"Who did this?" she whimpered.

"Michael. Castiel fought against the angels, tried to stop the apocalypse. But once Gabriel was killed, they captured him. It would have been too easy to kill him. So they imprisoned him here. Anna got the same treatment until she was broken. Then she became your servant, as you saw in the ballroom." Lucifer explained.

"This is horrible." She cried, putting her hands out on the bars.

"This is your future, Elena." Lucifer whispered.

She shook her head.

"How am I supposed to believe you? How do I know that you're not just tricking me?" Elena asked, looking at him with tears shining in her eyes.

"Well let's go forward a few days, see something else." Lucifer shrugged before snapping his fingers.

* * *

They watched as Gabriel closed his eyes, putting his hands to Elena's forehead.

"What is he doing?" Dean asked Cas.

"Shut up, monkey boy." Gabriel snapped.

Dean glared at him but Castiel stopped him from saying anything with a look.

"He's trying to see if whatever is wrong with her is in her head. If it is, then it is likely that Lucifer has something to do with her condition." The angel explained in a hushed tone.

"And if he is the cause?" Sam whispered.

"There's no if's about it, tall, dark, and handsome." Gabriel said, pulling away.

"It's Lucifer?" Bobby asked.

"Yep. He's got her mind all twisted up and closed off. I can't even tap into her emotions." Gabriel said, backing away.

"What now?" Sam asked.

The archangel turned to face them.

"Now… we're screwed." He said.

They stared at him.

"This isn't the time for one of your jokes, asshole." Dean snapped.

"I'm not joking, dick. We're literally screwed. Why don't you tell them, Cas, since they don't seem to believe me." Gabriel said, glaring at Dean angrily.

"There is one of two options, let Lucifer do whatever he wants with Elena and hope that it ends soon, which isn't ideal for obvious reasons. He could keep Elena under forever if he chooses." Cas said.

"Or…?" Sam said.

"Or… Gabriel forces his way into her mind. He goes to wherever Lucifer is keeping her and pulls her out." the angel said, rubbing his forehead.

"And why isn't that option ideal?" Bobby asked.

Cas looked at them warily.

"Tell us." Dean urged him.

"It is dangerous enough for Elena having Lucifer in her mind. To add another angel, an archangel at that… it would be extremely dangerous." Cas said.

They all stared at him, wondering exactly what extremely dangerous.

"It would be like Lucifer is a tumor that's in her head growing and twisting and infecting her. Now add me… a virus that can shrink the tumor, remove its hold from her mind… but it can also destroy every nerve in her brain." Gabriel explained.

"So either she can stay like this, or you could basically kill her?" Dean said.

"Pretty much, yeah." Gabriel nodded.

They all grew silent, the gravity of the situation weighing down on them.

* * *

Elena appeared in an ornate bedroom alone. Lucifer was nowhere to be seen but her future self was sitting at a dressing table with Anna fixing her hair.

"Are you going to ask Michael for Castiel's freedom again today?" Anna asked softly.

"Of course I am. I've asked him every day for four years. Why would I stop now?" Future Elena said, looking in the mirror with a blank expression.

"What if there was a way to get him out without having to plead with Michael?" Anna asked.

Elena stopped her and turned to look at her.

"I tried everything possible, Anna. For an entire year, every single day I tried to get him out of there. It's impossible." she said quietly.

"What if I can get him out, Elena? If I can get him out…" Anna pushed away from her and walked to the bed, dropping to her knees to slide her hand underneath it.

When she pulled it out, a silver blade was clutching in her hand.

"Where did you get that?" Future Elena hissed, her eyes widening when she saw the angel-killing blade.

"If I can get Cas out, can you kill Michael?" Anna asked, squatting in front of her and holding the blade up.

"Anna…" Elena began.

"Elena we have to end this. Michael is cruel and we cannot survive like this much longer. Most of the angels who pander to him in that ballroom aren't even truly loyal to him. They only stay there because they know that if they do not, they'll be hunted." Anna whispered.

"I can't, Anna. It would be putting far too much at risk." Elena said, shaking her head as she took the blade from Anna and shoved it between the many pillows on the bed.

"Elena you are the only one who will be able to get close enough to Michael to do it. I can take care of Uriel and Raphael. Please." Anna pleaded.

Elena turned with tears in her eyes.

"If I were to do this… Anna it would take away any hope…" her voice cracked and she cut off, shaking her head.

Anna seemed to know exactly what she was talking about.

"Elena, do you really think that there is any part of Dean left in there?" the angel whispered, standing to put her hand on Elena's cheek.

"What if there is? What if I can get him back?" Elena said, tears streaming down her face.

"I don't think you can." Anna said.

Suddenly past Elena felt a presence by her side and turned to see Lucifer.

"Seen enough?" he said.

"Take me out of here." Elena said, tears running down her own face.

"So that's a no, then." He said, smirking before he snapped his fingers once again.

* * *

"We can't do nothing." Dean sighed, sitting on the floor next to the couch and rubbing his hands on his cheeks.

"He's right. It's a risk but we can't let Elena be trapped in her mind by Lucifer forever." Sam agreed.

"So we're voting for the delving into Elena's mind option?" Gabriel asked.

Dean looked at him, his eyes narrowed.

"You can't kill her." he said.

"I'll try my best, sugar lips." he said, rolling his eyes as he walked to Elena.

Dean grabbed his arm and forced him to look at him.

"Please. You cannot kill her." Dean said pleadingly, not even trying to act tough or angry.

He was tired and he was desperate.

Gabriel stared at him and nodded, this time without a teasing smirk or a snarky comment. Then he leaned in and pressed his hands to Elena's forehead.

* * *

Elena winced, feeling a slight pain in her head as they landed in the ballroom once more. Michael was already sitting on his chair. This time Zachariah and Raphael were standing behind the throne-like chair and no other chairs were present. They turned to see future Elena walking down, her head held high as Anna walked just behind her.

"I said I want to get out." Elena snapped.

"I just need you to see one last thing." He said.

"Momma!" two voices rang out at the same time.

Elena turned with wide eyes to see two formerly dressed children, a boy and a girl, push their way out of the crowd and run towards the stairs. She looked up to see her future self rush down the stairs with a bright look in her eye.

"No." she whispered.

"Oh yes." Lucifer said, looking thrilled.

Future Elena got to the bottom of the stairs and spread out her arms for the children to leap into. Tears shone in her future self's eyes as she embraced both of the children.

"We missed you, Momma." The little boy, who looked to be about four years old, said.

The little girl looked like she was only two.

"How…" Elena cut off.

"Michael." Lucifer said.

"No… I would never." She said, shaking her head.

"You didn't sleep with him. Think of it as an immaculate conception… twice over. Touched by an angel. All that crap. Except he used your hunter's DNA to do it." Lucifer said.

Elena turned and stared at him, narrowing her eyes slightly.

"I want to talk to… myself." She said.

"You can't do that, I already told you we're invisible to everyone here." Lucifer said, staring back at her.

"Yeah well… I'm changing the rules. I can do that, right? I can change the rules." Elena said, starting forward.

His eyes narrowed as well.

"This isn't the future." Elena said, glaring up at him.

"Isn't it? Well well well… look who has wisened up." He said, smirking.

"Are we in my mind? Is that it? Is this just another dream?" she asked.

"Possibly. Tell me, what gave me away?" Lucifer asked, looking around.

"The children. I would never, ever bring children into this horrible world. I would kill myself before being forced to subject my children to this." Elena snapped, gesturing around.

"Okay… maybe I went a little far with that. But hey, it would have been poetic. Anyways, this might be just all an illusion that I've created in your mind, but what makes you think that this isn't going to happen one day?" he said.

"Because I'm not going to let it happen. We're in my mind. I can take control now." Elena said, closing her eyes and concentrating as hard as she could.

When she opened them, she was back in the bedroom. Her future self was sitting on the bed. Elena stared at her with surprise, not expecting her to be wearing a pair of fleece sweatpants and one of Dean's plaid shirts.

"Hello?" she said, hoping it worked.

Her future self whirled around to stare at her.

"What… how is this possible?" she demanded, walking forward.

"I am…" Elena bit her lip, not wanting to tell her future self that this was all a dream.

That wouldn't go well.

"I am your past self. I've come here to see what the future is like. It's not great. So I'm gonna help you fix it." Elena said.

"Fix it? Do you have any idea how broken it is? My eighteen year-old-self can't just whirl in here and fix everything." Future Elena snapped coldly.

"How did you know how old I was?" Elena asked, confused.

"Oh right… you haven't developed the rest of your abilities yet. You'll figure it out soon enough. Now I suggest that you get back to your time before we're both caught and killed."

"No, I'm not leaving until everything is fixed." Elena said, walking to the pillows and pulling the angel sword out.

"I can't help you do this. I can't put John and Miranda at risk." Future Elena said, shaking her head.

"John and Miranda? That's the name of your children?"

"Yes. Named after Dean's father and my… our… mother. They are your children in the future. And I would like them to stay alive so if you would please scurry off."

"No." Elena said stubbornly.

"God I knew if I ever got in an argument with myself there would be no winner." Future Elena sighed.

Suddenly there was a knock on the door and the person entered. They turned to see Anna standing there looking shocked.

"What is…" she trailed off, walking in and shutting the door.

"This is my past self. Apparently she's come to help us end Michael's tyrannous reign." Future Elena said, rolling her eyes.

"That's great." Anna said, smiling as she looked between the two.

"Great? No, it's dangerous." She said, shaking her head.

"This is perfect, Elena. Every plan I could think of needed three people to help. Now… we have three people. Come on." Anna said.

"I cannot put in danger…" Future Elena began.

"Your children. I know. But you also cannot allow Michael to keep making the decisions about their lives, right? They'll end up just like him." Anna reminded her.

Elena nodded emphatically, hoping this convinced her.

"If I do this… what makes you so sure we'll win?" Future Elena asked.

"You're just going to have to take it on faith." Anna said.

* * *

"Is it working?" Dean whispered to Cas.

Gabriel had been sitting there with his hands on Elena's face for thirty minutes now.

"I'm almost in so if you would shut the hell up, I could use as much concentration and peace as I can." Gabriel snapped.

Dean glared at his back before he resumed pacing.

* * *

Elena looked around as she descended the stairs. She held a regular knife in one hand as she crept through the dungeons.

"What are you doing, Elena?" she turned to see Lucifer standing there with a vaguely amused look on his face.

She held the knife out in a threatening pose.

"What is that going to do? Prick me?" he asked, starting forward.

"No, I suppose it won't do anything… to you." Elena said, backing away.

When she reached the cell with Castiel in it, her hand flew out and grasped the bars.

"Don't you need the key?" Lucifer asked, holding up a ring of keys.

"My mind. My rules." Elena shot back, shoving her weight against the door and causing it to fly open.

She darted inside and slammed it shut, turning to see Castiel looking up with shock.

"Elena?" he said questioningly.

"Hey, Cas." She said, wincing at his sunken cheeks and dead eyes.

"You aren't this time's Elena. Where are you from?" Cas asked.

"A long time ago." she said, circling the fire while trying to figure out how to get him out.

"Oops. I think you were too loud. There's a guard coming." Lucifer whispered, leaning against the wall outside the cell with a smirk.

Someone came into view and glared at Elena through the bars.

"Michael isn't going to be very happy when he finds out what you're trying to do… again." He said, pushing the cell door open and stepping in.

"Yeah well… what can I say? I like pushing Michael's buttons." Elena said, looking down at the knife in her hand.

"My mind… my rules." She whispered, closing her eyes.

When she opened them, she was holding an angel-killing blade instead. She looked up at the angel who was the guard and leapt forward, taking him by surprise as she shoved it into his heart.

"Sorry… I need a bridge." She said, throwing him down on the circle of fire as a bright light filled the room.

When it was gone, Cas was standing up and staring down at the dead angel whose wings were burnt into the ground.

"Where is Elena? Now Elena?" he asked, stepping over the body and out of the flames.

He stumbled and Elena caught him, bracing him against the wall.

"It's going to be okay. I'm gonna get you out of here." Elena assured him, wondering how she could help him.

"You're gonna need some help, cupcake." A new voice said.

They turned to see Gabriel standing there, grinning at them as he leaned against the wall.

"Hello brother." he said, not looking at Cas but at Lucifer.

"Gabriel… it's nice to see your cowardly ass out of hiding." Lucifer snapped, glaring at him.

"This is impossible." Cas breathed, looking between them with wide eyes.

"It's okay." Elena assured him, holding him up.

He stared at her for a moment before the strength of his body failed and he passed out cold. Elena laid him on the ground, glancing between Gabriel and Lucifer.

"You know, it's nice and comfortable in here. I'm sure you were pleased as hell to find a nice hidey hole in Elena's mind. But I'm sorry to say that it's gonna have to come to an end." Gabriel said.

"Yeah? And how's that?" Lucifer shot back.

"These walls… they're not real. You and I both know that. They are actually the walls of Elena's mind. I know, that's creepy, right? I'm touching her mind right now. But you manifested them into real walls. So if I were to say…" Gabriel shrugged, holding up his hand.

There was a cut on it and blood was dripping down his arm.

"… carve an angel-banishing sigil onto it… well that would keep all unwanted angels out, wouldn't it?" Gabriel said, grinning.

"Don't you dare!" Lucifer said, darting forward.

Gabriel slammed his hand to the wall and a bright light filled the room once again. When it was gone, Lucifer was nowhere to be seen.

**(A/N It didn't banish Gabriel because he's the one who did the banishing. It didn't banish Cas because he's a projection of Elena's mind. I realize that could be confusing. I'm not sure if Lucifer can be banished by these but I am assuming that all of the rules for angels go for Lucifer too)**

"All right, sweetheart. We've got to get you out of here." Gabriel said.

"No, I have to fix it." Elena said stubbornly, shaking her head.

"Elena this is your mind, you fix it by ending it." the archangel said.

"No, I need to see it done." She said pleadingly.

Gabriel stared at her.

"This is a bad idea." He sighed, shaking his head as he reached down.

When she looked, Castiel was fully healed. His eyes opened and he looked up at them.

"What is going on?" he asked as he sat up.

"We're bringing down the king." Elena said, helping him stand.

Cas looked at Gabriel.

"You're dead." He said.

"Am I ever really dead, though?" Gabriel shrugged, turning to walk out of the cell.

* * *

When they ran into the ballroom, they saw Future Elena standing in front of Michael in a sort of lace cocktail dress. She was holding the angel-killing blade and Zachariah was at her feet with a lifeless look in his eyes.

"What do you think you're doing?" Michael demanded, standing up to walk to her.

"I'm taking back my life." Elena replied, stepping around Zachariah to walk to Michael.

"I could kill you right now." Michael threatened.

"But you won't."

Suddenly there was a shout and they all looked to see Anna yank the angel-killing blade that she was carrying out of Raphael's chest. They ran forward and everyone gasped when they saw them.

"How did you manage this?" Michael said, his eyes flickering over them.

"She didn't. I did." Elena said, stepping forward to stand beside her future self.

They both brandished their angel-killing blades threateningly.

"You're going to kill me? As if you could." Michael said.

Gabriel suddenly appeared behind him and grabbed his arms.

"Sorry big bro." he said, yanking them behind his back.

Michael looked straight at future Elena.

"If you kill me, you're never getting your hunter back." he snapped.

"You wouldn't have given him back to me anyways." Future Elena shot back.

"If you kill me, this place will descend into anarchy. Paradise isn't good without someone to rule it."

"We're not going to kill you." Gabriel said.

"We're just going to send you away." Elena said.

"And if you ever come back, we will kill you." Future Elena said.

Suddenly they dropped their swords and clasped hands, both of them somehow knowing the words to the angel exorcism chant. They began to say it and Michael's eyes widened.

"Stop!" he yelled, struggling in Gabriel's arms, shocked that he was not able to overpower his little brother.

"My head… my rules…" Elena whispered before she continued chanting.

His eyes burned white as he threw his head back and a bright white light filled the room. Suddenly, when it was all over, he slumped in Gabriel's arms with his eyes shut. Future Elena broke her grip and darted forward, catching him and holding him tightly.

"Momma?" they turned to see the little children standing there.

"Come here." Future Elena said, beckoning them to her.

"Did you kill Daddy, Momma?" John asked as they drew closer.

"No, no I fixed him. We fixed him." Future Elena said, tears streaming down her face as she looked up at them with grateful eyes.

Elena backed away with Gabriel, watching as Dean's eyes fluttered open.

"Lena?" he said.

"Hi." Future Elena said with a smile.

"Now can we get out of here?" Gabriel asked.

Elena turned to him, sighing.

"I know it's not real. I knew that all along, somewhere deep inside. But I had to see it through. I had to make sure it was a happy ending, you know?" Elena said, looking at her future self.

"I know. But you've got your own hunter who is real worried about you and he is waiting. And probably being a real asshole about it too." Gabriel reminded her.

She nodded and looked at him.

"How do we get out?" she asked.

"Your head… your rules." He shrugged.

Elena smiled and closed her eyes, concentrating as he reached out to touch her shoulder.

* * *

She suddenly sat up on the couch, gasping for air as her eyes flew open.

"Elena!" Dean was at her side instantly as Gabriel stood.

Elena looked up at him, her eyes wide.

"Dean." She breathed, reaching out to touch his cheek.

"I thought you were gone." He said, grabbing her into a hug.

Elena bit her lip and held him tightly.

"So did I." she admitted.

When he let go of her, she stood shakily to hug Sam and Bobby. Then she turned to the angels. Cas looked almost ashamed. He wouldn't meet her eyes.

"I'm not angry with you, Cas. You were just trying to do the right thing with Jesse. It's just… Lucifer was in my head. He was saying all sorts of things and it made me… he just confused me." Elena said.

"I understand." The angel nodded.

Elena strode forward, pulling him into a hug.

"I'm sorry." She whispered.

"I am too." He admitted, softly hugging her back.

Elena turned to Gabriel last, smiling at him.

"You came to get me." she said.

"I couldn't leave you in there, could I? You are needed in the real world." He shrugged.

"Oh just admit it. You like me to much to let me die." She said, nudging him.

"How many times have I saved your life now?" Gabriel reminded her with a raised eyebrow.

"A lot." She shrugged before grabbing him in a hug too.

* * *

**Author's Note: I apologize again! It's a crappy chapter but it's kind of a filler one. So the next one will be better, I promise. **


	15. Chapter 15

**Disclaimer: I do not own TVD or Supernatural**

**Thanks to Nyssandria, Dark Alana, Hollywood17, xxPaige23xx, Slytherin Cat, diehardromantic, TheElegantFaerie, slayerdiaries, RHatch89, Dark-Supernatural-Angel, MrsMaeveSalvatoreMikaelson, and the guest for reviewing! You guys are absolutely amazing and make me feel fantastic about my writing!**

* * *

**Glenwood Springs Psychiatric Hospital – Ketchum, Oklahoma**

"I have to say, your resume is impressive for someone so young." Dr. Fuller said.

"Thank you." Elena said, smiling at him.

"I think you will be an excellent addition to our nursing staff, Miss Elvin." He said, standing and reaching out to shake her hand.

"Please, Dr. Fuller, call me Abigail." Elena said with a grin, shaking his hand.

"Well, if you're eager to get started, I have a patient coming in for an evaluation in about fifteen minutes. You can sit in with me, see what exactly is going on." he offered.

"That would be great, Dr. Fuller. Thank you so much." she said with a grin.

"You can just go throw on some scrubs, just in case things get messy. Then you can meet me back here."

"I will be right back." Elena nodded before walking out to go to the women's staff locker room.

When she got there, she immediately opened the locker assigned to her to find a pair of light blue scrubs. She went to a stall and pulled them on before pulling her hair into a bun.

* * *

Elena wound up sitting in the corner holding a clipboard to take notes. She wasn't going to say anything in the interview. She was just going to be a silent observor.

"You were referred to me by a Dr. Babar in Chicago." Dr. Fuller said, looking up at the two men.

"That's right." Dean nodded, smiling easily at him.

"Isn't there a children's book about an elephant named Babar?" the man asked, squinting his eyes.

"I don't know. I don't have any elephant books. Look, Doctor, I… I think the doc was in over his head with this one. Cause my brother is..." Dean cut off, making a crazy sign at his ear and whistling.

Dr. Fuller raised his hand as Elena shook her head.

"Okay, fine, thank you. That's-that's really not necessary. Why don't you tell me how you're feeling, Alex?" he asked, looking at Sam.

Sam sighed, shaking his head.

"I'm fine. I mean, okay, a little depressed, I guess." He said.

"Okay. Any idea why?" Dr. Fuller asked as he scribbled in his own notebook.

"Probably because I started the apocalypse." Sam nodded.

Dr. Fuller looked up at Sam with surprise as Elena hid a smile at his shocked look.

"The apocalypse?" he asked.

"Yeah, that's right." the younger brother said.

The doctor looked over at Dean, who smiled at him knowingly.

"And you think you started it?"

"Well, yeah, I mean... I killed this demon, Lilith, and I accidentally freed Lucifer from hell. So now, he's topside, and we're trying to stop him." Sam explained.

Dean looked back at the doctor with an exasperated look.

"Who is?" Dr. Fuller asked.

"Me. A-and him." Sam said, pointing at Dean. "And this one angel."

"Oh, you mean, like a... like an angel on your shoulder." He nodded.

"No. His name's Castiel. He wears a trench coat. And we also have a guardian, don't we Elena?" Sam said, looking back at her.

Dr. Fuller stared at her.

"What?" she said, acting confused.

"She's our guardian." Sam said proudly.

"My name is…" Dr. Fuller held up his hand, shaking his head for her to quiet down.

"See what I mean, Doc? The kid's been beating himself up about this for months. The apocalypse wasn't his fault." Dean said, leaning forward.

If possible, Dr. Fuller looked even more stunned.

"It's not?" he asked, his eyes wide.

"No. There was this other demon, Ruby. She got him addicted to demon blood, and near the end, he was practically chugging this stuff." Dean said confidently.

Dr. Fuller looked over at Sam, who looked ashamed as he stared down at his lap.

"My brother's not evil. He was just... high... right Elena?" Dean looked back at her for help as her eyes widened.

"She's here to help us." Dean said, the same proud tone in his voice.

"So, could you fix him up so we can get back to traveling around the country and hunting monsters?" Dean asked the doctor when no one said anything.

Dr. Fuller put a finger up for them to wait as he picked up his phone. He quickly dialed an extension.

"Irma... cancel my lunch." He said in a low voice.

As he hung up, Elena saw Dean patting Sam comfortingly on the arm.

"Can you two just wait in here? I need to talk to… her, for a moment." Dr. Fuller said, pointing at Elena.

She followed him out of the office.

"It's obvious that we need to admit both of them. I know that it is a lot to ask on your first day but… well… often when one of our patients identify with someone we like to keep them near to keep them calm. Would you mind sticking with these two boys… just until we figure out some things." he said in a soft voice.

"No, no problem. Do I… erm… answer to Elena?" she asked.

"For right now, it's best to go along with their delusion just until we can get them under control. After that you will be removed from the case and it won't even matter anymore."

* * *

Elena followed as another nurse led them down the hallway. She was going to do their checkups since she was their companion rather than their nurse.

"We're just going keep you both under observation for a couple of days." The other nurse said, smiling at them.

"Both? Me, too?" Dean asked, trying to sound panicked.

"Yes, Sugar. The doctor thinks that would be best." The nurse said, smiling at them.

Dean turned to give Elena a wink as they walked.

* * *

Dean looked up at the nurse as she wrapped a blood pressure cuff around his arm.

"Alright, I'm just gonna give you a little check-up." She said with a grin.

"Alright, look, Nurse Ratched, let's get one thing straight. I've seen Cuckoo's Nest, so don't try any of that soul-crushing, authoritarian crap on me, hm?" Dean said roughly, staring at her.

"Okie-dokie." She said, still grinning.

Dean nodded, smiling uncomfortably at her too positive attitude.

* * *

"All right, you can go ahead and take down your pants." The same nurse said, taking the blood pressure cuff of of Sam's arm.

Sam looked up in horror, looking panicked.

"Wait, w-what? W-what for?" he stammered.

She simply snapppd a rubber glove on, smiling at him as he shifted uncomfortably.

* * *

When Sam and Dean came up to her as she sat in the loungeroom, she saw that they were wearing patient scrubs, shoes, and a light blue robes. Sam sighed as they sat on either side of Elena, both looking frazzled.

"How was your Silkwood shower?" Dean asked, sounding pained.

"Okay. Yeah, good. Yeah, good, um… good water pressure. Did the nurse..." Sam trailed off.

"She was very thorough." Dean said hoarsely.

"Yeah. Yeah, good. Good. Yeah." Sam said as Elena hid an amused smile.

"I can't believe I let you talk me into this." Dean grumbled as he glanced around the lounge.

"Hey, it's the least we could do. Martin saved Dad's ass more times than we can count. He's a great hunter." Sam said, leaning back.

"Was. Until Albuquerque." Dean reminded him.

"Besides, I just figure it's best we keep busy. That's all."

"Yeah, because busy is what we need." Dean scoffed.

"Dean…" Elena sighed.

"We have three days, Elena." he said harshly.

"I know. But that doesn't mean that we can't help people." She said.

"We should be searching for a way to end this crap with Zachariah." He shot back.

"We've been searching, Dean." Elena said, looking down at her hands.

"There he is." Sam said, gesturing to a table where a man was sitting, staring out the window.

They got up to walk to him as Elena followed a distance away like a nurse should.

"Sam, Dean, wow." Martin said when he noticed them standing there. "Wow, you boys got big. You look good."

"Thanks. You do, too, Martin." Sam nodded, shaking his hand.

"Uh...Well, thanks for coming." The man motioned for them to sit at his table. (motions for them to sit)

"Yeah." Sam said as Elena sat at the table next to them.

Martin glanced over at her warily.

"She's with us, Martin." Dean assured him.

"Oh good. You know… in the old days, I could've taken care of this thing with both hands tied behind my back... but, well... now..." he trailed off, twitching slightly.

"What do you think it is that we're hunting?" Sam asked.

"I don't know yet. A ghost, demon, monster... animal, vegetable, mineral." He chuckled slightly. "Hospital's had five deaths in the last four months. Doctors keep calling it suicides, but they're wrong."

"So, you've seen this thing?" Sam asked.

Martin shook his head.

"Has anyone seen this thing?" Elena asked.

"Well, a couple patients have, uh... had glimpses, but there's not a lot to go on." Martin answered.

"Are they reliable?" Dean questioned.

"Oh, sure, why wouldn't they be?" the older man shrugged.

Dean looked behind his shoulder at a female patient who was dancing and humming by herself before looking back at him.

"Gee, I don't know." He said sarcastically.

"I know you boys think I'm a bag of loose screws. Now, you wouldn't be wrong. But I wouldn't have called you unless there was something here. I can feel it in my gut." Martin said.

Dean and Sam exchanged a look before they nodded.

"We believe you. Have you checked any of the bodies? Found signs of an attack?" Sam asked.

"Well, uh, no... I don't go around dead b… bodies anymore." Martin flinched, shaking his head.

Dean frowned at them as Elena looked up to see Dr. Fuller walking up to them. He nodded at Elena before focusing on Dean and Sam.

"Alex, Eddie." Sam and Dean turned to face him. "Well, I'm glad to see you're making friends. Why don't you and, uh, Mr. Creaser join us for group? Please. Right this way."

Sam, Dean, and Martin all stood, walking over to the doctor. He stopped Dean.

"Actually, I'm gonna be putting you in the afternoon group." Dr. Fuller said.

"What? Why?" Dean demanded as Elena squinted her eyes at the doctor.

"Well, to be frank, uh, the relationship that you have with your brother seems dangerously codependent. I think a little time apart will do you both good. You'll come with us?" he said to Elena.

She nodded and they turned to walk away with Sam and Martin following them. Dean waved goodbye to them, looking a little pathetic.

* * *

Elena sat just outside the circle as Dr. Fuller sat in it with Sam, Martin, and five other patients.

"Alright, so...who would like to start us off?" he asked.

One patient, a man with crazy hair and but relatively normal everything else, raised his hand.

"Anyone else?" Dr. Fuller sighed, obviously trying to avoid letting this patient talk.

He held his hand a little higher, looking desperate as he waved it slightly.

"Alright, Ted. Calm down." He said.

Ted frowned as he lowered his hand.

"I am calm. And I'd very calmly like to talk about the monster that's hunting us." He said in a low voice.

"Ted, we're not going to have that discussion again." Dr. Fuller said with a raised eyebrow.

Elena's eyes flashed to Sam and Martin as they exchanged intrigued looks.

"It's not good for group." The doctor continued.

"I agree. You know what else isn't good for group? A monster eating all our faces off." Ted fired back.

Elena had to hide a smile because she found herself liking Ted.

"Alright, fine, thank you. Now, anyone else?" Dr. Fuller said, trying to move on.

"I saw it... when it killed Susan." Sam and Elena leaned forward at the same time.

"I did, too. It had big lobster claws." Another patient said, this one had crazy eyes.

"No, it didn't." Ted says, narrowing his eyes at the woman.

"Yeah, and it was an alien, like on X-Files." She nodded.

"Stop it. Stop helping. Listen to me. We're all dead!" Ted exclaimed.

"That's enough." Dr. Fuller leaned forward to take off his glasses. "There is no monster."

Elena looked at Dr. Fuller, trying to decide if he was going to be a problem. Her first instinct said yes, he was going to be a very big problem.

"Now, Ted, do you need me to call the orderlies..."

Ted shook his head furiously.

" ...or can you behave?"

"Behave." Ted nodded.

* * *

Dean stared at the checkers board as he played with himself. He moved a piece and smirked.

"King me!" he proclaimed, laughing and marvelling over how he pulled off this crazy thing pretty well.

"Eddie?" a voice said and he looked up to see a semi-attractive doctor standing there.

"I'm Dr. Erica Cartwright. I've been assigned to your case." She said, looking down at him.

"You're my shrink?" He asked.

"And you're my...paranoid schizophrenic with narcissistic personality disorder and religious psychosis." She replied, looking down at the file that she was holding.

Dean didn't answer, just looking down.

"Can we talk?" she asked, sitting down opposite him.

"Yes. I actually got some questions for you." Dean nodded, looking up at her.

"What a coincidence. I've got some for you, too." Dr. Cartwright said, leaning forward with her elbows on the table.

"Well, then... quid pro quo, Clarice." Dean said, imitating Hannibal Lector.

"Okay, Hannibal. I'll go first. How many hours a night do you sleep?" She asked.

"Three or four, every couple of nights. What can you tell me about the recent suicides in here?" Dean shot back.

"They were tragic." She said simply.

"But you haven't noticed anything... strange, like, uh... I don't know, black smoke or sulfur?" he asked, shrugging.

"No. Why? What's that supposed to mean?" she asked, sounding interested.

"Demon signs. I hunt demons, monsters, that kind of thing." Dean said, playing up this 'delusions' thing.

She pursed her lips, staring at him.

"How many drinks do you have a week?" Dr. Cartwright asked.

"Well, I gotta sleep sometime. You ever feel any, uh, cold spots or get a chill walking through the hospital?" Dean asked, brushing off the talk about his drinking.

"Not that I can remember. If I had?" she questioned.

"It means there's a ghost around." Dean said.

"Okay. When was the last time you were in a long-term relationship?" Dean looked up at her.

"Define long-term." he said, already knowing that he was going to lie about this.

He did not want to discuss Elena right now.

"More than two months." She said.

"Never. Have the patients reported seeing anything weird?" Dean asked, avoiding the romance topic as he lied.

"In here?" she chuckled. "All the time."

"Right." Dean nodded.

"So..." Dr. Cartwright leaned closer to him. "… let's talk about your father. Oh, and that girl of yours that you're lying to me about."

* * *

Dean sighed as he followed several patients down the hallway, his head down and his hands shoved in his pocket. When he heard footsteps walking up to him, he slowed down.

"Dean, hey." He turned towards Sam, who frowned.

"You okay?" he asked, concerned.

"I just got thraped. So, no, I am not okay. Tell me you found something." Dean snapped, sounding angry and depressed at the same time.

"Yeah. A guy says he saw the creature. We should talk to him. You wanna meet here in an hour?" Sam asked.

"Yeah, sooner we take care of this thing, sooner we can get gone. This place gives me the creeps." Dean said, shuddering as he looked around. "Where's Elena?"

"Talking to Dr. Fuller. I'll go find her." Sam said.

"No I will." Dean waved him off, turning to walk off.

* * *

As he walked down the hallway, he felt a presence behind him. It wasn't until a hand snagged his and pulled him into a supply closet that he saw who it was.

"You know this could be an authority figure taking advantage of a patient." he said as she pushed him against the wall.

"You look sad." Elena said softly, tilting her head to the side.

"Yeah, Elena, I'm sad, okay? I have less than seventy-two hours left with you because you refuse to do anything more to try to avoid this." Dean sighed, leaning his head back to look at the ceiling.

"Dean… there's nothing else we can do. We've tried everything. Unless you think you can get past the multiple angel guards that Zachariah is bound to have on him, there's no choice in the matter. I'm not about to let any of you get killed for me." Elena sighed.

"I cannot lose you, Elena. We can't survive without you, none of us." He said, taking her hands and looking her in the eye.

"Sure you can. You did fine without me before." she said with a slight smile, leaning in.

"That's not what I mean. We'll physically survive but… dammit, Elena. We love you. I love you." he said, his voice catching in his throat.

She sighed and let her head fall onto his chest.

"Dean, chances are Zachariah is bluffing." He opened his mouth to argue. "And even if he isn't, do you really think I won't fight through heaven and hell to get back to you? Do you really think that Zachariah will be able to keep us apart forever?" she asked.

He stared at her.

"He can't, Dean. Because I won't let him. Now you listen to me, I can see the doubts in your head. There is no possible way that you can ever say yes to Michael." He swallowed hard and leaned his head back again.

"Look at me." she pulled his face back down.

"If I do this, if I let Zachariah play his game, do you know how much it's gonna piss me off if you say yes anyways? Dean, he can't keep us apart forever but your attempt at bravery certainly could. If Michael takes hold of you, he's never letting you go. You will never come back to me. I can fight Zachariah easier than I can fight the ultimate archangel so please, do not ever say yes." Elena said desperately.

Dean stared at her before nodding.

"You're right." he agreed.

She sighed and leaned up on her tiptoes, pressing her lips to his softly.

"I love you." Elena whispered after they kissed for a moment.

"I love you too." He replied, pulling her close and burying his face in her hair.

They stood there holding each other for a moment.

"How's your head? Any more Lucifer dreams?" he asked.

"No, whatever Gabriel did in my head fixed everything. I don't think he can get in here anymore." Elena said as she drew away.

"You ever gonna tell me what he showed you?" Dean asked.

"I told you, he showed me a future in which you said yes to Michael. Which I don't have to worry about so it doesn't matter." Elena said.

"There's more than that, though." He said.

"Nothing important. It was all a fake world in my head, Dean. It's not as though it's important to anything in reality. It was just a stupid dream." Elena shrugged.

Dean sighed but nodded, giving up for now.

* * *

"Well, it's about time. Nurses are on their rounds. We got, like, fifteen, twenty minutes. So, where is this guy?" Dean asked from where he was standing at their agreed meeting spot later that night.

"Room 306." Sam replied as he walked up with a lock-picking tool.

They headed down the hallway towards Ted's room. As they rounded the corner, they heard someone screaming and broke into a run to Ted's door. Dean looked in the window as Sam began to pick the lock. Two feet slammed against the window as the screaming continued.

"Hurry up! Come on, hurry up!" Dean yelled.

"Back off, Dean!" Sam snapped, glaring up at him before returning to picking the lock.

When he got it undone, they lunged into the room to find Ted hanging from a pipe in the ceiling, a bed sheet tied around his neck.

* * *

Dean leaned down and opened the drawer that Ted was stored in. Sam pulled back the sheet and began feeling around Ted's head as Dean searched his hands. Sam froze when he found two holes just behind Ted's ears.

"Hey, I think I found something." He said.

"What do you got?" Dean asked, looking up at him.

"Right here. Uh, give me a hand." Sam said, grabbing a long Q-tip from a table.

He stuck it into the hole and watched as it came out the other side.

"This hole goes all the way through to his brain." He said, looking up at Dean.

"What does that mean?" Dean asked, grimacing slightly..

Sam looked around, spotting a bone saw quickly.

"Let's find out." he said, picking it up.

"Seriously?" Dean demanded, paling a few shades.

"You might want to keep watch." Sam said, not wanting Dean to pass out in the middle of their sneaking around the morgue.

Dean backed off, turning to walk out and stand watch at the doors. When he heard the bone saw start up, he frowned in disgust. After a few minutes, he heard footsteps approaching the room.

* * *

"That was tragic, what happened to that poor patient." Annalise, another nurse, said as they walked down the hallway, coming from an emergency staff meeting.

"I can't believe that another patient committed suicide." Elena sighed, shaking her head as she pushed a strand of hair out of her eyes.

"I know. It's like a curse or bad luck or something." Annalise said, nodding.

They heard a noise and turned to see that it came from the morgue room. When they exchanged a strange look, they walked forward to investigate. Elena already had a feeling as to whom it was.

* * *

"Dude." Dean said as he ran in.

Sam held up a dry, shriveled thing up.

"Look, his brain's been sucked dry." He said.

"That's fascinating. Somebody's coming." Dean snapped as he quickly began clean up with Sam.

A few moments after they shoved his body back into the freezer, the door opened to reveal Elena and Annalise.

"What are you boys doing in here?" Annalise asked, raising an eyebrow as Elena smirked and crossed her arms over her chest.

Sam looked at Dean and Dean looked back, both of them unable to think of something to say. Suddenly Dean shrugged and pulled his pants down, throwing his arm over his head as he began jumping up and down like an excitable child. Elena bit her lip to keep from laughing.

"Pudding!" Dean exclaimed, grinning.

Annalise turned to her and they exchanged an amused look.

"Alright, come on, you two." she said, turning to open the door.

Elena grinned as Dean reached down to pull his pants up.

"Crazy works." She heard him whisper to Sam as he turned to walk to the door.

He winked at her as he passed and she shook her head.

* * *

"What is it?" Dean asked as Martin showed them a picture of something in his journal.

"Well, I bet you a chicken dinner it's what we're up against... a wraith. They crack open skulls and feed on brain juice." Martin explained.

"You ever tangle with one before?" Sam asked, looking up at him.

"Never. Never wanted to, neither." Martin said, shaking his head.

"So, how do we kill it?" Dean asked, running his fingers through his head.

"Silver. You so much as touch a wraith with the stuff, and the skin will crackle. Now, that's the good news. The bad news is... they can pass as humans." Martin sighed.

They all turned and looked around the lounge.

"It could be any Peter, Paul and Mary in the joint."

"Fantastic. So, how do we find it?" Dean sighed, sounding exasperated already.

"A mirror. Lore says a wraith will show its true form in a mirror." Martin informed them.

"Okay, well, we just gotta spot check every patient and every staff member." Dean nodded.

"Okay. Yeah. But… I mean, what's it doing in a mental hospital?" Sam asked, looking at Martin.

"A nuthouse; it's a perfect captive victim pool." Dean explained.

"Sure. Who's gonna believe a patient when they say they saw a monster? It's the perfect hunting ground." Martin agreed.

* * *

Dean stood at the corner of the nurses' station, watching people walk by in a round mirror by the ceiling. He only looked away when Dr. Cartwright walked up.

"What's up, Doc?" he asked.

"You tell me." she said, leaning against the wall with him.

"Hunting. A wraith, actually. Could be anybody." He informed her.

"So, I could be a monster?" she asked, smirking.

Dean looked up at the mirror.

"No, you're clean." Dean said.

"Why you?" Dr. Cartwright asked, pushing away to look at him with her hands in her lab coat pockets.

"Why me, what?" he replied, looking at her.

"Why do you have to hunt monsters? Why not let someone else do it?" she asked, cocking her head to the side.

Dean shrugged, smiling.

"Can't find anybody else that dumb. It's my job. Somebody's gotta save people's asses, yours included." He said.

"So, is there a quota? How many people do you have to save?"

"All of them." Dean replied.

"All of them? You think you have to save everyone?" Dr. Cartwright asked, raising her eyebrows.

"Yep. Whole wide world of sports." He nodded.

"How?"

Dean didn't answer, just looking at her but not wanting to tell her.

"Believe me, whatever you've got, I've heard weirder." She assured him.

"It's the end of the world, okay? I mean, it's a damn Biblical apocalypse, and if I don't stop it and save everyone, then no one will, and we all die." Dean explained, sighing as he leaned against the wall.

"That's horrible." Dr. Cartwright commented after thinking about it for a moment.

"Yeah, tell me about it." Dean nodded.

"I mean, apocalypse or no apocalypse... monsters or no monsters, that's a crushing weight to have on your shoulders. To feel like six billion lives depend on you... God... how do you get up in the morning?" she asked, looking sympathetic.

Dean didn't get a chance to answer as Dr. Fuller walked past them.

"Hello, Eddie." He nodded pleasantly at Dean.

"Doc." Dean said, looking up at the mirror as he passed.

He flinched away when he saw a decaying face with matted hair instead of Dr. Fuller's face. Then he pushed away and watched as Dr. Fuller walked down the hall.

* * *

"Alright, I had to raid three nurses' stations to get these." Elena said as she handed out silver letter openers to everyone. "They're only silver-plated, but they should work."

"Fuller is on call tonight, so we'll have to hit him after lights out. All four of us." Sam said.

"What? No." Martin said, shaking his head.

"Martin, we gotta get past security, past the orderlies, and then cut the boss-man's throat, okay? It's gonna suck start to finish, but we could use the backup. Elena's gonna to try to distract people but it may not work." Dean said.

"Oh, I can't. I can't." he said, turning to walk off while muttering to himself.

"We know what happened in Albuquerque." Sam said quickly.

Martin stopped, turning back to face them.

"You don't know the half of it. God, I used to be just like you two. I used to think I was invincible, and then... well, I found out I'm not." He said.

"Martin, you're still a hunter." Dean said.

"No. I'm not. I'm useless. Why do you think I checked myself into the Hotel California? I'd give anything to help you boys, I would. But, I… I can't. I'm sorry. I can't." he said, turning to walk off and this time, they let him.

* * *

Sam, Dean, and Elena all walked into Dr. Fuller's office to find that it was empty. Dean picked his keys up off the desk.

"He's still in the building. You take the west wing. I'll take the east. Elena you stay here in case he comes back." Dean said.

She nodded as they left the office.

* * *

Sam walked down in the hallway, his letter opener at the read as he looked in each room that he passed. When he looked around the corner of another hallway, he saw Dr. Fuller heading his way. He stood up against the wall, waiting for him to come around. When the doctor did so, Sam stepped forward, raising the blade. The man put his arm up as Sam brought the blade down, cutting his arm. He yelled out and stumbled backwards as Sam took another swing. Two orderlies ran up and grabbed Sam to drag him away. Sam struggled, throwing off one orderly and punching the other. The first one approachedhim and Sam knocked his head into the window, shattering it and knocking him unconscious. Then he went to the other orderly and punched him twice, knocking him out as well.

When he turned to see Dr. Fuller running away, he grabbed the opener from the ground and followed. Sam talked the doctor to the ground and flipped him over, raising the blade high. Before he could bring it down, someone grabbed his arm. He turned to see Martin.

"No! No! Look at his arm. That cut's not burning." Martin said desperately.

Sam looked down at the cut to see that it wasn't even doing anything.

"It's not him. It's not him." Martin repeated.

Sam dropped the blade, scrambling away as he was stunned at what he almost did.

* * *

Elena chewed on her lip as she stood in the corner of Sam's room and watched him. He just stared dazedly at the wall and every once in a while, he would smile at her. When Dean opened the door and walked in, she watched as he walked to the bed.

"You okay?" he asked, bending over the bed.

"No. No, I'm not okay." Sam said, shaking his head.

Dean looked at Elena with panicked eyes. She just gestured to Sam tiredly, having to put up with this for the past thirty minutes.

"I… I am... awesome..." he breathed, grinning.

"They give you something?" Dean asked, realizing what was going on.

"Oh, yeah. They gave me... everything. It's spectacu… lacular." Sam laughed.

"You always were a happy drunk." Dean nodded as Sam turned and grabbed his arm, pulling him down to eye level as he grew serious..

"Dean... the doctor... wasn't a wraith." He said, his eyes wide.

"I know." Dean said.

"I don't understand it. I mean, I saw it in the mirror. It wasn't human." Dean said, turning to look at Elena for help.

She shrugged, not knowing what to say.

"Or you're seeing things. Maybe… maybe… maybe you're going crazy." Sam suggested, bringing Dean's attention back to him.

"I'm not crazy." Dean said simply.

"Well... come on. I mean, you've been at least... half crazy for a long time, and since you got back from hell, or since before that, even. I mean, we're in a… we're in a mental hospital." Sam laughed as they watched him. "Maybe… maybe you finally cracked! You know, maybe now you are really... for real... crazy..."

"I made a mistake, that's all. I'll find the thing." Dean said, tired of his brother's stammering.

Elena sighed. Dean didn't often make mistakes like that. Not when it came to monsters. There was something strange going on but she wasn't about to bring it up.

"Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know. I know." Sam said, putting a hand on Dean's shoulder.

Dean looked down at the hand with tired eyes.

"It's okay. Hey, hey. Look at me." the younger brother said.

Dean looked at him, 100% done with drugged up Sam.

"It's okay... because you're my brother... and I still love ya." Sam said, shaking him slightly.

Dean nodded and faked a smile. Sam looked at him seriously for another moment before reaching out and poking his nose.

"Boop!" he said, grinning like a child as he pulled away.

Dean just stared at him as Elena let out a slight chuckle.

* * *

Elena stared worredly after Dean as he walked down the hallway. When he began talking, she became even more worried. There was definitely something strange going on.

"You missed our session today." Dr. Cartwright said as she walked up to him.

"A little busy." Dean shot back, looking around and unaware that Elena was following him.

"Still hunting that wraith?" the doctor asked.

"People are dying." He replied.

"People die all the time." she shot back.

"Look, lady, why don't you just let me do my job, maybe save your life." he snapped.

"It's not my life that I'm worried about."

"Oh, my G-I am fine, okay?" he said exasperatedly, stopping and turning towards her. "I'm fine."

Elena stared at him as she stood a few feet away, even more worried.

"Come on, even you don't believe that. All this pressure that you're putting yourself under, all this guilt; it's killing you. You can't save everybody. You can't." Suddenly her voice became hard.

"Hell, these days, you can't save anybody, Dean." She turned to walk off.

"What did you say?" he said, his eyes wide as she called him by his real name.

Dr. Cartwright turned back towards him.

"The truth, Dean. You shot the devil, but you couldn't gank him. You can't save Elena from Zachariah."

Dean looked at her with a little bit of fear in his eyes.

"You couldn't stop Sam from killing Lilith, and… oh, yeah… you broke the first seal. All you do is fail. Did you really think that you, Dean Winchester with a GED and a give-'em-hell attitude, were gonna beat the devil?" she said, smirking at him.

Dean got a little more afraid as she continued talking.

"Please. The world is gonna burn, and there is nothing that you can do about it." she laughed.

"Who are you?" he demanded, staring at her with wide eyes.

"How do you know that stuff?" he said, his voice raising.

"Hey…" Elena walked forward to intervene.

"Settle down." An orderly said, walking towards him as well.

"Tell me!" Dean shouted, staring at her.

"What's wrong?" Elena asked, touching his arm.

"I said, settle down." The orderly said, standing on his other side.

"Who are you?" Dean said quieter, backing up to press himself against the wall.

He looked at Elena and then the orderly.

"Who is she?" he asked, pointing at Dr. Cartwright.

"Who?" Elena said, turning to look at the blank spot where he was pointing.

"Her!" he said desperately, pointing again.

"Pal, there's nobody there." the orderly said.

Dean looked at Elena with wide eyes before looking back at the spot. Dr. Cartwright had a twisted smile on her face.

"I'm not real, Dean. I'm in your head... because you are going crazy." She said tauntingly.

"Just leave me alone." He said, shaking his head before turning to walk down the hallway.

Elena wached as he flinched at the mirror when Annalise and a doctor passed it. When he flinched again as he looked in a window, she sped up to follow him. Her heart pounded nervously as she watched him back into a corner and slide onto the floor.

"Hey…" she knelt in front of him, taking his hands. "What is going on?"

He looked up at her with fear in his eyes.

"I think I'm going crazy." He whimpered.

* * *

Sam stood up when someone knocked on the door. Dr. Fuller entered with an orderly close behind him.

"You asked to see me?" the doctor asked.

"Yeah. Thanks. I, um...I just wanted to apologize. I feel horrible about what I did to you. I thought you were a monster." Sam said, glad that his head was clear now so that he could actually think.

"I know that. The question is, why?" Dr. Fuller questioned.

"I was... it doesn't matter, um... because after what happened last night, I had a... moment of clarity. I realized... there's no such thing as monsters." Sam sighed.

"Well, I'm glad to hear you say that, but, honestly? Monsters are the least of your problems. People can learn to live with delusions, but the anger I saw in you... you hurt those two men, and you were going to kill me. The look in your eyes when you came after me, I... it was like you were barely even human... like a man possessed." Dr. Fuller said warily.

Sam looked down, ashamed and guilt-ridden.

"I know. Please...just...could you give me a second chance?" he asked softly.

"Well, this isn't a prison. You'll be allowed to go to the day room, under supervision." Dr. Fuller sighed.

"Thank you." Sam said, looking up at him.

"But if there is one more outburst... I will transfer you to a facility that is equipped to handle violent patients. And, believe me, they will be far, far less forgiving." The doctor warned him.

* * *

Elena was sitting with Dean in the lounge when she saw Sam walk in.

"Dean? Hey." He said, approaching an empty checkers table.

Her eyebrows knitted together as she saw him talking to thin air similarly to how Dean had been.

"Oh. What's wrong?" he asked, looking wary.

"What?" he asked after a moment, looking devastated.

He stared whirling around, looking at nothing as panic and guilt settled on his face.

"Sam?" Elena asked, standing up to walk to him.

Dean caught her arm, his eyes wide as Sam began stumbling around.

"Leave me alone!" he yelled, throwing punches at thin air.

An orderly walked forward to grab him and he punched him. Two others grabbed his arms and began to try to haul him off as Elena watched the whole thing with wide eyes.

"Leave me alone! Leave me alone!" he yelled as the orderlies dragged him out of the room.

"No! Stop it! Leave me alone! Leave me alone! I didn't do it! Get off of me!" his voice echoed around them as they dragged him off.

"What's happening? What's happening?" she heard Dean whispering over and over again as he clutched her hand tightly.

"Dean… shh… it's okay. I think I know what's happening." Elena murmured.

* * *

Later that night, she used a bobby pin to open Dean's door. He sat up on the bed as she entered, holding his letter opener out.

"It's me. It's okay." She assured him, approaching him slowly.

"Where's Sam?" he whispered.

"Lockdown. We have to move fast, Dean. I think the wraith is going to attack one or both of you tonight." Elena said, taking his hand and pulling him towards the door.

"Where are we going?" he murmured as they walked out into the hallway.

"Martin." Elena said simply.

When they slipped into the former hunter's room, he sat up, brandishing his own silver blade.

"Martin, Martin. It's Dean and Elena." Dean whispered, assuring him as they walked up to his bed.

"Oh, sorry." He said, lowering the blade.

"You… you look like hell, boy." Martin said, noticing the bags underneath Dean's eyes and the weary look on his face.

Dean nodded.

"I… I feel like it, too." He said.

"Where's Sam?" Martin asked, standing up.

"Lockdown! He went crazy! Thank God." Dean sighed with relief.

"What?" Martin asked, confused as he looked at Elena.

"I'm going crazy, too. I'm seeing things. I'm hearing things. I mean, we both are." Dean said.

"Yes. That's what I am saying. Crazy is the clue." Elena said, nodding.

"What do you mean?" Martin questioned.

Elena opened her mouth to explain but stopped when she saw Dean staring at the other side of the room. After a few moments of silence, Martin snapped his finger's in front of Dean's face.

He jolted a little and looked back at them.

"Crazy is the clue." He repeated Elena's words.

"Elena said that. What?" Martin asked again.

"The things that me and Sam have done, the stuff that we've seen, we're gonna end up going guano eventually. Probably end up like a couple of drooling nut bags. No offense." He said quickly, staring at Martin warily.

"None taken." Martin allowed.

"But you and Sam, freaking out on the same day? I mean, it's gotta be..." Elena trailed off.

"The monster..." Martin nodded.

Dean jumped, looking around as he freaked out.

"What? Where? Where?" he said, panicked as he ducked down next to the bed.

"No… it's not… no, there's nothing there." Martin stammered, watching Dean warily.

Dean remaind crouching next to the bed.

"Okay. What if this thing doesn't just feed on the insane? What if it makes people insane? Is it possible? Does that seem real?" he was practically begging for clarification from Martin.

"Well, I'm not the most reliable source on what is real, but it sounds… it makes sense." Martin shrugged.

"Okay. Okay. So… so we got infected. You know, something shot us up with crazy. You know, something... maybe...maybe it's the ghost of my dad..." Dean said, looking up at them with wide eyes.

"No. Focus on the wraith, Dean. Focus." Elena said, squatting in front of him and taking his hands.

"Right, the wraith, the wraith." He breathed, nodding as she pulled him up to standing.

"Okay. So, the wraith, the wraith, it… it poisoned us. It… yeah. Maybe with venom, you know? By-by touch... or… or venom, or saliva.

"All right, well let's go get Sam out of lockdown. He's a sitting duck there." Elena said, turning to walk out of the room.

As they walked down the hallway, Elena and Martin noticed that Dean was walking awkwardly. They stopped and looked at him strangely.

"Dean?" Martin said in a questioning tone.

Dean stopped, noticing their weird looks.

"I can't step on the cracks." He explained.

Suddenly a scream cut through the air and they ran off to see who it was. They ran up to a door and Dean kicked it open to see a woman lying on the bed, her wrists slit. Standing over her was Annalise.

"Is this real?" Dean said as Elena gaped at the nurse.

The wraith turned, withdrawing her hand from the woman's head to reveal a skewer sticking out of her wrist. She brought it up to her mouth and licked it off before it withdrew into her wrist.

"Oh, it is, Sugar. It's very real." She said, smirking.

Dean darted forward, holding out his blade. The wraith threw him against the wall and Elena leapt forward to attack her but Martin got thre first, attacking her with the silver letter opener. She lashed out and threw him into the hallway, turning to attack Dean again. She pinned him the wall and reared back to throw a punch before Elena ripped her off and threw her against the other wall, positioning herself between the wraith and Dean. She began to advance on them again but Martin ran back in to attack her. The wraith threw her hand out to shield herself and Martin sliced it open with the blade.

She screamed and whirled around, running past Martin to the door and slamming it shut as her cut burned and crackled. Elena ran to Dean, helping him up to a sitting position. Martin went to check on the female patient, who blinked.

"She's still alive." He announced.

They heard orderlies approaching as Martin leaned over the woman.

"Dean? Can you hear me? Dean!" Elena said, shaking him as she tried to get him to focus.

"You've gotta get out there and kill that thing. I'll take care of her." Martin said, facing them.

Dean shook his head.

"I can't."

"You have to. You have no choice, son." Martin said, shoving them towards the door.

It flew open to reveal two orderlies that ran past them to Martin, thinking that Elena had Dean under control.

"Go. Dean, run! Run!" Martin yelled as they grabbed him.

Elena gripped Dean's hand and practically dragged him out the door.

"Come on, Dean." She said as he stumbled behind her, obviously quite disoriented.

She followed a trail of blood drops that led to the lockdown area, helping Dean up when he fell to his knees a few times.

* * *

Sam was lying on a bed in a padded room, his ankles and wrists strapped down. When the door opened, he looked up to see the nurse that did his check-up standing there.

"Hey! Let me go!" he yelled as she walked in.

"No. You are far too angry to be out there in the real world." She said, closing the door behind her.

Sam and the nurse both looked at the mirror to see that she looked like the wraith.

"You." He breathed.

"Of course, it's me. I gotta say, you hunters don't exactly live up to your rep." she said, circling the bed. "I mean, Martin's a wreck. He's harmless."

Sam began to fight the restraints.

"And you and your brother come in here, talking tough about killing monsters... kind of made you easy to spot. Then all it took was a touch and you were mine. Oh, I love it in here." The wraith spoke, kneeling at the head of the bed.

"This place is my own personal five-star restaurant." She said, trailing a finger across his forehead.

He jerked away from her as she stuck her finger in her mouth, moaning.

"Crazy brains. They get soaked in dopamine and adrenaline and all sorts of hormones and chemicals that make them... delicious. And the crazier they are, the better they taste." She explained.

"You did this to me!" Sam growled, struggling against his binds.

"Well, I helped. But that rage? No, no, no. That's all you." she said as she stood and walked to the side of the bed. "I don't make crazy. I just crank up what's already there."

Sam yelled out as she sat beside him.

"You build your own hell, but I give you the Legos. And when you're ripe..."

Her skewer popped out of her wrist next to his head.

"... I make all of your problems disappear."

She turned his head to the side, approaching it with the skewer. The door suddenly flew open and Dean and Elena ran in.

"You get away from him." Elena snapped.

The wraith stood, turning to face them.

"Do you really think this is gonna end well for you, Abigail?" she asked, smirking.

"Probably not. But you know what? Unlike these guys, you haven't affected me. And you know what? They're not all that crazy. You know when they tell everyone that they have a guardian, you should all really listen just in case it might be true." Elena said, pulling the blade out of her pocket and gripping it in her hand.

The wraith chuckled and raised her hand, the skewer sliding back into her arm. Elena darted forward and swung the blade at her but she ducked it and threw her into the wall.

"Dean get Sam out!" she yelled, grabbing the wraith's arm and throwing her into the wall.

She pinned the wraith by her throat and raised the blade but she caught it before she could bring it down. Suddenly she turned and slammed Elena against the wall, her weight bearing down on her.

"Run!" Elena commanded them when she noticed that Sam was free.

"But…" Dean began.

"You are worthless in a fight right now! You'll just get in the way! Run!" she screamed at them, satisfied when they turned to stumble out of the room.

The wraith's skewer suddenly popped out again and she aimed it at Elena's forehead.

"You know, I don't need the crazy brains. Yours will do well enough for now… until I can go after those hunter boys of yours." The wraith said, grinning.

Elena glared up at her before she freed her hand and grabbed the skewer, breaking it off. The wraith screamed painfully, throwing herself backwards as blood spurted from her hand. Elena dropped the skewer and picked up the blade where she dropped it in the fight. She walked to the wraith, kneeling over her as she put her hand around her throat. She raised the blade high and brought it down in her chest, satisfied when she heard the burning noise and the wraith screamed some more. She didn't waste any time, standing up to run out of the room. She saw Dean and Sam waiting at the end of the hallway as she ran out, her scrubs sprayed with blood from the wraith's hand.

"You still crazy?" she demanded, looking between them.

"Not any more than usual." Dean said, looking over at Sam.

"We gotta get out of here." Sam said.

"Yeah." Elena agreed just before alarm bells began ringing.

They ran towards the locker room where Elena had the keys stored. When they grabbed them, they ran towards the side exit and bursted out of it.

"Well, looks like Tom Cruise was right. Shrinks suck." Dean grumbled as they walked towards the Impala.

They reached the Impala and turned back to see Sam hesitating at the trunk.

"What are you doing?" Dean asked as Elena said, "Sam? You okay?"

"No. No. The wraith…" he said, looking at them with wide eyes.

"What about her?" Dean asked, wondering if this was the best time to be talking.

"She was right." he said.

"No, she wasn't. She's dead, okay?" Elena said, shaking her head.

"Let's hit the road. I need a drink, or twelve." Dean sighed.

"Most of the time, I can hide it, but... I am angry. I'm mad at everything. I used to be mad at you and Dad, then Lilith, now it's Lucifer, and I make excuses. I blame Ruby or the demon blood, but it's not their fault. It's not them. It's me. It's inside me. I'm mad... all the time... and I don't know why." Sam ranted, anguished and exasperated.

Elean and Dean stepped closer to him, the former looking at the latter as he opened his mouth.

"Stop. Stop it. So what if you are? What are you gonna do? You gonna take a leave of absence? You gonna say yes to Lucifer? What?" Dean snapped.

"No, of course not. I…" Sam said, shaking his head.

"Exactly. And that's exactly what you're gonna do. You're gonna take all that crap and you're gonna bury it. You're gonna forget about it, because that's how we keep going! That's how we don't end up like Martin! Are you with me?" Dean demanded.

Sam remained silent for a moment.

"Come on, man. Are you with me?"

"I'm with you." Sam sighed.

"Good. Let's get the hell out of here." Dean said.

Elena turned and shrieked when she saw someone standing in front of her. Zachariah didn't give her a chance to say anything, just grabbing her arm and disappearing as the two brothers yelled out in protest.

* * *

**Author's Note: I promise I'll update soon! I won't keep you waiting long! I know that it doesn't make much sense that they can't stop Zachariah but it won't make the story very interesting if it's that easy, right? So just bear with me please! And REVEW PLEASE!**

**Next chapter is the confrontation with Zachariah and we'll meet an old character that has not even been mentioned in this story so far. It is a Supernatural character. I'll leave you to wonder about who it could possibly be.**


	16. Chapter 16

**Disclaimer: I do not own TVD or Supernatural**

**Thanks to LineChokor, Nyssandria, MrsMaeveSalvatoreMikaelson, diehardromantic, DrawingMyHeartOut, Dark Alana, xxPaige23xx, Hollywood17, Dark-Supernatural-Angel, chiwi, RHatch89, and the two guests for reviewing!**

**A few things:**

**1. To make a few people very happy, I will tell you right now that the story is NOWHERE NEAR ENDING! In fact, there will be a whole other part after this part is over. That's right, a whole entire third separate fic if you guys will bear with me for another one. **

**2. This chapter is kind of the turning point of this part. It takes the story in a whole other direction and I hope you don't hate me for it. At this point, we're probably a little less than halfway through this part of the story.**

* * *

Elena turned around, realizing exactly where she was. It was the same room that Zachariah had kept her and Dean in an attempt to keep them from stopping Sam killing Lilith. She turned to glare at him.

"So what? You're just gonna keep me here?" she snapped.

"I gave you three months, Elena. I thought that was plenty of time to convince you that you do not have control over your future. We are going to get what we want whether you like it or not. Michael will claim his vessel." Zachariah said, walking forward.

"Over my dead body." Elena fired back, walking forward as well with her arms crossed over her chest.

Zachariah stared at her for a moment before his eyes flickered down to her clothing.

"You don't look very comfortable in that. Allow me to help you." he snapped his fingers and she looked down to see that she was in jeans, a white shirt, a black leather jacket with black heeled boots.

The blood was gone and her hair was braided over her shoulder.

"You know, it's creepy that all of you angels seem to just know how I like to dress." Elena said, looking up at him.

"We're just observant, Elena." Zachariah replied.

She scoffed and turned away from him, noticing that they'd replaced the statue that Dean smashed on purpose last time they were there.

"They're not going to stop looking for me, you know that right?" She said, crossing her arms as she walked around the room.

"Oh you're going to see them again." Zachariah said.

She turned to look at him with confusion.

"I thought you said that you were going to separate us." Elena said.

"We're angels, Elena. We're merciful." He said, opening his arms wide.

"Yeah." She scoffed skeptically.

"We are. That's why I'm going to give you one last chance." Zachariah said, holding up one finger.

Elena stared at him before shaking her head.

"No." she said stubbornly.

He stared at her.

"Beg pardon?" he said questioningly.

"You can take your last chance and shove it up your feathery ass." Elena said, holding her head high.

"I don't think you mean that, Elena. I think you want one last chance to convince Dean to take our side and let Michael in him and this can all be over. You'll get your hunter back in Paradise when Michael defeats Lucifer." Zachariah said.

"I don't believe you. And even if that were true, you already told me how many people would die in this war of yours. Why would I possibly let that happen for my own selfish reasons? No..." she shook her head, glaring at him. "… I will put myself between you, Michael, or anyone other angel or demon who would sacrifice millions of people for their own petty arguments."

Zachariah raised an eyebrow at her.

"You really think that you, two boys, a drunk, and a fallen angel can stop the apocalypse?" he asked.

"I like our chances." Elena shrugged, turning away from him.

"I don't. I'm giving you one last chance, Elena. One more time and then when Dean says yes to Michael, you will be most beloved of the angels." Zachariah offered.

"Nice try." She shot back.

He stared at her for a moment.

"You don't really have much of a choice, Elena." the angel said.

* * *

"We need you to find Elena." Dean said as he paced outside of Bobby's house.

"Sure thing, lover boy. How about after that, I grant you two more wishes? And no wishing for more wishes." Gabriel said, leaning against the Impala.

"This isn't a joke, ass! This is Elena we're talking about!" Dean snapped.

Gabriel stared back at him before shaking his head.

"What are you gonna do? Go bursting in with guns blazing?" he asked.

"If that's what I have to do." Dean confirmed.

Gabriel shook his head.

"You won't get her back, kid. I'm sorry to tell you…" Dean shoved Gabriel against the car, his hand around his neck.

"I don't care what you think. I am not letting her go this easily. Find Zachariah and tell me where he is." He growled, glaring at the archangel.

"You've got some guts, strangling an archangel." Gabriel said with a raised eyebrow as Bobby, Sam, and Castiel watched warily.

Dean stepped backwards and let go of him. The archangel stared at him before closing his eyes. When they popped back open, he looked confused.

"What is it?" Sam asked, walking forward as Gabriel looked out towards the highway that ran by Bobby's house.

"They're here." Gabriel said, his brow furrowed.

"What? Here?" Dean said, looking around.

"No, not here at the house. Here in Sioux Falls." He said.

Sam and Bobby exchanged wary looks as Dean nodded.

"Where?" he asked.

"Dean…" Sam began.

"I don't want to hear it, Sam. Where are they?" Dean demanded.

"This is a trap, Dean." Cas said calmly.

"I don't give a damn!" he yelled.

"Do you know how pissed Elena would get if you ruined everything by gettin' yourself captured?" Bobby snapped from where he sat on the porch.

"Bobby, you can't just ask me to give up on this. None of you can. I don't care if she kills me. I am going to get her out of this." Dean said desperately.

"They're at a bar." Gabriel said.

Dean looked up at him as Sam, Bobby and Cas shook their heads in disbelief.

"I know which one." He nodded.

When he walked to get in the driver's side of the car, Sam walked to the passenger's.

"What are you doing?" Dean asked.

"I'm not letting you go into this alone, Dean. I care about Elena too. I think this is a stupid thing to do, but you're my brother and Elena is like a sister to me. So I'm in." Sam said, looking at him over the car.

Cas sighed and walked down.

"I will go as well." he volunteered.

"No." three voices rang out.

He looked confused.

"Zachariah would love nothing more than a chance to beat your ass into the ground or better yet take you to Raphael so that he can do it. It's better if you stay away from all angels for now." Gabriel warned him.

"I can be of help." Cas argued, looking frustrated.

"Sorry, Cas. You aren't at full capacity and we can't have you dead. Elena would kill all of us." Dean said, shaking his head.

The angel sighed and glared around at them as he stepped back again. Gabriel turned back to them.

"You aren't coming either." Dean said.

"Am I not?" the archangel asked, amused at his command.

"No. Because we can't afford to have some angel death match if they find out that you're on our side. You're better just staying under the radar for now."

Gabriel shrugged. "You said it boss. Have a good time on your suicide mission."

* * *

Elena glared at Zachariah as he sat at the bar drinking.

"This is useless. Dean and Sam won't come." She said, glaring at him.

"I think they will. You see, Castiel is probably with those boys and he should be able to feel my presence if he really concentrates so they'll know exactly where you are. I'm expecting them to come in here with the entire arsenal so that's why we've emptied out the bar." He said, gesturing around to the empty room besides her, him, and a few other angels there to be Zachariah's bodyguards in case things get violent.

"You're such a coward." She scoffed, shaking her head as she moved to get off of the barstool.

"Ah ah. Stay." He said, snapping his fingers and freezing her in place.

She huffed and crossed her arms over her chest.

"I'm warning you, this is a waste of time. Even if Dean does show up, I'm not going to convince him. It's a useless venture and you should really understand that now." Elena informed him.

"Hmm… let's see how I can change your mind. You know there's really no limit to the people that I can threaten to make you do this. Dean. Sam. Bobby. Castiel. No? Doing nothing for you?"

She just stared at the angel.

"Fine. How about Jeremy?"

Elena's eyes widened and she stared at him.

"Alaric? Bonnie? Caroline, Damon, Stefan. Tyler, Matt." He listed.

"You wouldn't dare." She said, narrowing her eyes at him.

"Wouldn't I?" he said, smirking.

"I would kill you." She threatened.

"And there are a thousand more angels that would take my place. You do realize it never ends? There is never going to be a safety option for you." Zachariah said.

She opened her mouth to say something but was interrupted by the sound of a car pulling up outside.

"Ah, looks like I was right." he said triumphantly.

Elena stared at the door with fear in her eyes. When it opened, Sam and Dean walked in. They weren't holding any weapons or anything. They were just there.

"Leave." Elena said harshly, able to stand up now.

"No, please stay." Zachariah said with a smirk as an angel appeared at the door to block it.

Elena looked at Zachariah with anger but also with fear. Was he going to torture them in front of her?

"Elena is just making a little decision. Don't mind her." he said, waving her off.

"You shouldn't have come. It's a trap." Elena said helplessly.

"We know." Dean said.

She tilted her head, staring at him.

"What do you mean, you know?" she demanded, crossing her arms over her chest.

"We're not stupid, Elena. We knew it was a trap." He replied.

"Then what the hell were you thinking coming here, Dean?!" she shouted, her temper getting the best of her at his recklessness.

"How could I not come, Elena?" he fired back defensively.

"Oh, a lover's spat. Careful, Dean. You might make Elena's decision a little easier if you keep irking her." Zachariah taunted.

"Shut up." They both turned to glare at him and his smile fell as he glared back.

"Tick tock, Elena." he said, raising an eyebrow at her.

She looked away, crossing her arms as she looked down at her feet.

"I'll start with the vampires. Those Salvatore boys… your pretty little blonde friend. They're abominations, shouldn't even be allowed to live." Zachariah said, walking up behind Elena.

"What's he talking about?" Sam asked, confused.

"Then I'll go on with the witch. Bonnie Bennett. Her line has a habit of teaming up with vampires. That makes her as bad as them."

Elena tensed up, clenching her hands.

"Then I'll go for the humans. The sacrifice of the few can benefit the many."

She bit her lip hard.

"Don't worry, they won't suffer… much."

"Elena…" Dean said, his eyes wide as he understood that Zachariah was threatening her family and friends.

She looked at him, tears springing in her eyes.

"I'm sorry, Dean." She whimpered, walking forward.

He caught her as she stumbled into his arms. She could practically feel Zachariah's smirk as the tears overflowed. She looked up at Dean and saw his wide eyes.

"I'm so sorry." She cried.

He sighed and reached down, stroking her hair softly.

"Shh… it's okay. I know. They mean a lot to you. I'll do it… if it protects them. If it keeps you from feeling the pain of losing the little family you got left…"

Elena let out a particularly violent sob, the damn finally breaking as she buried her head in his chest.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." She repeated over and over again, clutching at his shirt.

He just held her, stroking her hair as he glared at a triumphant Zachariah. After a few moments, he began to push her away.

"All right…" he said, stepping forward.

Elena's hands gripped his shirt, pulling him back to stand in front of her. She looked up at him with tear filled eyes.

"I love you." she whimpered.

He stared down at her, stroking her wet cheek.

"I love you too." He said.

"Isn't this sweet?" Zachariah said, sounding as though Christmas came early.

Elena turned to glare at him.

"Shut the hell up." She growled, her eyes flashing electric blue.

They watched with shock as he was thrown backwards into a wall. Elena stared at him for a moment with wide eyes before her head turned back to Dean.

"Dean, I love you. I'm sorry." She said, reaching up and touching his cheeks.

She pushed herself up onto her toes and kissed him fiercely. He responded with passion, hugging her tightly to him. When she pulled away, she kept him looking at her.

"I don't care what they do… what they say. Dean Winchester…" Elena began.

"Stop it." Zachariah growled, suddenly realizing that he was wrong about Elena's decision.

"… don't you dare say yes. Don't you ever say yes. I love you Dean and I will find a way to get back to you. So don't you dare say yes." She said as Dean's eyes lit up with realization.

"Elena…" he began.

She let out a choking sob and pressed her lips to his again just before she felt a hand clamp down on her shoulder.

* * *

When her eyes opened, she was standing in a whole new room. It was a living room of sorts. The walls were stone and there were windows. The light was shining too brightly in them for her to be able to see any details of the outside world. It was a beautiful room but she had a feeling that it was yet another angel set up. There was a door but she was almost positive that there was no way she would be getting through it. She looked around to see that her and Zachariah were alone. He looked less than please but she could tell that he was keeping his anger under control.

"Looks like you made your decision, Elena." Zachariah said, clasping his hands as he sat on a cushioned chair.

"Looks like." she nodded, unmoving from where she was standing.

He sighed and shook his head.

"That is a shame."

She glared at him.

"I will go to Mystic Falls. I will protect each and every one of my friends and family. You won't get them." She said.

"I'm not going to go after your family." He said, looking up at her.

She cocked her head to the side, confused.

"That was just a threat to get you to make Dean say yes. Now that that idea is kaput, there's no reason for me to go after your family. What happens next will be punishment enough, trust me." Zachariah said.

"And what's that?" Elena demanded.

He smirked up at her.

"I assume Castiel explained to you the history of the guardians." He said, gesturing for her to sit.

Elena almost refused but sighed, sitting down and crossing her legs and her arms.

"Some of it, I guess." She said, controlling her urge to attempt to kill Zachariah with her bare hands.

"You are a special case, you know. We didn't give you a choice but with other guardians, they did get a choice. They could either be in the lives of those that they're meant to protect… or…"

"They could be invisible." Elena finished.

"Exactly. So like I said, we didn't give you a choice. You were in the Winchesters' lives from the beginning. Now, we're making that choice for you again."

Elena realized what he was saying.

"I'm invisible?" she said, her voice catching.

"Indeed you are. To the entire human race, you aren't there. You can walk through a crowded mall or down a street and no one will see you." Zachariah said triumphantly.

Elena sat back, her hand trembling slightly as she brought it to her mouth.

"You son of a bitch." She whispered.

"I told you I would separate you two, Elena. I follow through on my promises. So now I promise you that as soon as you convince Dean to say yes, you can go back to being nice and visible. You can go see your family. You can do whatever you want." Zachariah offered.

She stared at him, leaning forward.

"How many times… do I have to tell you no?" she said in a low voice, trying to hold it together.

"What can I say? I'm an optimist. I believe that you'll change your mind." Zachariah shrugged.

She shook her head, looking away from him.

"Good luck with that."

"Oh and, in case you get any misconceptions, if your precious little angel Castiel gets any ideas about trying to reverse this, know that I will just make you just like this again and I will make it permanent so that you never become visible again." He warned her.

She refused to look at him.

"Now are we going to talk about how you tossed me like a rag doll? Cause I'm really interested in hearing the story behind that." Zachariah said, leaning forward.

She turned to look at him, smirking as she shoved her devastation down.

"What? Is that not normal?" she said in a taunting voice, leaning forward as well.

Zachariah chuckled, standing up and shaking his head.

"You are an enigma, Elena Gilbert. I look forward to unwrapping that mystery you have surrounding you." he said, pointing at her as he walked to a small table with drawers in it.

He opened one and pulled out a silver dagger in a sheath. Elena immediately recognized it. It was the dagger that Cas used to kill Esther. **(A/N I changed this. I know that before, in Hells Bells, it was a small sword but I decided that was impractical. It's a dagger now. The picture of it is up on my profile)**

"This was made just for you, Elena. Made by the angels for your protection and the protection of your charges." He said, pulling it out to reveal the bright silver blade.

"If you're going to keep me away from Dean, why do I need a dagger to protect him and Sam?" she snapped.

"I'm not keeping you away from him. You're invisible now. There's no need to keep you apart because you will have no way to be with him even when you are in the same room. You will continue to be the guardian of the Winchesters until Sam says yes to Lucifer and Dean says yes to Michael. Then you'll step aside as they fight, Michael defeats Lucifer, and we all live in Paradise." Zachariah shrugged.

Elena didn't bother to argue with him, standing when he came close to her.

"This dagger will kill most everything that you come across." He said, handing it to her.

She took it, looking down at the dagger.

"I assume since you can see me, this whole invisible thing has loopholes." She said, looking up at him.

"Angels can see you. We have to keep track of you somehow." Zachariah said.

She ran her fingers over the small blade, careful not to cut herself before her eyes flashed up to him. Then she reared back and slammed the blade into his chest forcefully, feeling a strange sense of satisfaction as it cut into his skin. She yanked it back out and he sighed, rubbing his chest where the hole in his shirt was.

"Well Elena… I can't say that wasn't annoying." He said as she stepped back. "This was my favorite shirt."

She stared at him with narrowed eyes.

"It's a shame to say, Elena. But that special little dagger won't work on angels." He said, handing her the sheath.

"That's a shame. It would have been real nice to watch you die." She snapped.

He let out a sharp chuckle and shook his head.

"There are few intricacies to this new lifestyle of yours. You see, you can fight anything, supernatural or otherwise, that might be threatening the Winchesters. And when you fight them, they will be able to see you." Zachariah said.

"Why? Wouldn't it make it easier for me to kill them if I couldn't be seen?" Elena demanded.

"We've tested that. It actually makes it harder. When the creatures can't see their attacks, they become desperate. They start flailing about and they attack anything they see. Everyone dies in that situation so it doesn't help much. So whatever becomes a threat to Sam and Dean will be able to see you." he explained, backing away.

Elena shook her head and turned away from him.

"I want your word that you won't touch a single person in Mystic Falls." She said.

"I promise."

She turned to glare at him.

"I don't believe you." she said in an accusing tone.

"Well you're going to have to, Elena." he replied easily, shrugging.

She turned away once again, tying the sheath onto one of the belt loops on her jeans.

"So what? You drop me with Dean and Sam all invisible and expect me to go along with your plan?" she asked, pacing the room.

"That is exactly what I expect you to do. Because you don't have another choice. You have nowhere left to go." Zachariah said.

"And if I refuse?" Elena asked.

He stared at her with surprise.

"And here I thought you loved those boys. That you wanted to protect them." Zachariah said with surprise.

Elena shook her head, turning to face him.

"I am not stupid, Zachariah. Those boys lived without me for years. They have protected themselves for a very long time. They didn't need me. There is no situation they got in that they couldn't have gotten out of. I am unnecessary. Cas could have easily protected or healed them all the times that I did. You put me in their lives on purpose. For this very reason. You wanted a bargaining chip. You knew that Sam and Dean weren't going to give you the chance to use them against each other. Bobby never would have gone along with it either. You needed something to use against Dean. You gave him me." She said.

Zachariah stared at her.

"So you're gonna stop? Now?" he asked, not denying what she said.

Elena remained quiet, sitting down and rubbing her forehead.

"Of course not. As much as I hate to admit it, you're right. I love those boys. I love Bobby. I will do everything in my power to keep them safe even if they don't need me. And I will get back to Dean and I will not make him say yes to Michael. And God forbid I ever get my hands on an angel-killing blade." She said, looking up at Zachariah. "Because if I do, I'll shove into your cold heart so fast that you'll barely see me coming."

He smirked and turned to the door, walking to it to pull it open. A bright light shone through it.

"I'm sure you can find your own way out of here. Don't even try the windows, this entire room is an illusion. And say hi to Dean and Sam when you find your way back to them. Oh wait…" Zachariah taunted before he walked out the door and slammed it.

Elena stood and walked to it. She put her hand on the knob and attempted to turn it. Nothing happened, as though it was locked. She kicked and punched the door and nothing happened.

"Son of a bitch!" she screamed, finally losing her hold on her emotions.

After taking her anger out on the impenetrable door, she backed away and closed her eyes, concentrating as hard as she could. She felt a rush of heat in her body and when she opened her eyes, she was standing on the other side of the room.

"Okay… that's something…" she mumbled, knowing that she'd just apparated on her own for the first time.

For the next hour, she continued to do this, only making it to other places around the same room.

"What the hell?" She shouted, throwing one of the vases at the wall and watching with satisfaction as it shattered into pieces.

As soon as they fell to the floor, a knock sounded on the door. She faced it, her brow furrowing in confusion as she walked towards it slowly. The knock sounded again and she reached out, finding that the knob turned this time. She hesitantly pulled the knife out of its sheath and held it high as she ripped the door open.

"Hey!" the man standing there ducked in panic.

She stared at him with wide eyes before scanning the area behind him. It was the forest, which was strange.

"Who the hell are you?" Elena demanded, lowering the dagger slowly.

"Hi… you must be Elena. Man I heard a lot about you on angel radio. It's a pleasure." The man said as she studied him.

He was wearing a black muscle shirt, jeans, and black bloots. His hair was styled in a long mullet and he was holding a beer bottle.

"I would say the same if I knew who you were." She replied.

"Of course, yeah. I'm Ash." He said, holding out a hand.

She shook it slowly.

"I'm an old friend of Sam and Dean's but an even older friend of Ellen and Jo's. Thanks for takin' care of them, by the way. You help those women, you're already my friend. I'm here to get you out. I got somebody waitin' on you back at the Roadhouse."

"The Roadhouse?" Elena questioned.

"Yep." He said.

"Ellen mentioned the Roadhouse. She said it was destroyed." Elena said.

"Yeah, and me along with it. We're going to my version of the Roadhouse. Come on." he said, beckoning for her to follow him.

Elena shoved the dagger back into the sheath and followed him, walking with difficulty in her heeled shoes on the forest ground.

"Damn angels." She grumbled, stopping short and glaring down at the shoes.

"What's wrong?" Ash asked, turning back towards her.

"I just wish I wasn't wearing heeled boots in the middle of the freaking woods. It would be nice if I could change!" she exclaimed frustratingly.

"Erm…" Ash said, looking down at her feet.

She looked down to see that she was all of the sudden wearing black flat riding boots.

"Whoa." She said.

"Maybe it's the heavenly magic." Ash shrugged.

"Heavenly magic?" Elena asked, confused.

"Yeah… you're in heaven. Didn't you know that?" Ash asked.

She stared at him.

"I'm… where?" she said.

"Oh… you didn't know then. My bad. I guess I coulda broken that to you a little gentler. Yeah… you're in heaven. Don't worry, it's not cause you're dead. Trust me, I know my dead people cause, you know, I am one." He said, trying to backtrack.

"Okay, Ash. Just… take me to the Roadhouse." Elena said, gesturing forward.

"We're not that far, luckily." He said, turning back as she followed him. They came to a shack in the middle of a bunch of trees.

"This is… impressive." She said sarcastically.

"Wait till you see the inside." Ash said, pushing the door open.

She followed him in to see a fully stocked bar with a pool table and everything.

"Wow… this is impressive." She said, fully serious this time.

"You wanna beer?" he asked, turning around as he walked to the bar.

"That'd be… great." Elena said, walking up to and leaning against it.

"You got it." he snapped, pulling out two ice cold beers and handing one to her.

She smiled at he handed it to her, already liking this guy but then becoming sad when she realized that he was in heaven because he was dead.

"Ash… who did you say was here for me?" she asked, sliding onto a barstool.

"Oh, right…" he said, walking to a swinging door and opening it.

"She's here! You can come out of hiding!" he yelled.

She watched as another figure walked through it.

"There's my girl." Gabriel said with a smirk.

She sighed and threw herself at him, not even caring about anything as she threw her arms around his shoulders.

"Whoa… little excited to see me." Gabriel said as he hugged her back.

"I've been stuck with Zachariah." She mumbled, burying her face in his shoulder.

"Oh yeah, that's enough to make anyone want a hug." the archangel said.

She pulled away.

"Why are you hiding here?" she asked.

"Well… considering that I haven't been here in a very, very long time, I don't exactly want my presence to be known. Ash here welcomed me with open arms." Gabriel said, nodding at the other man.

"I'm glad to do it. Usually I like to keep angels out, but you are welcome anytime my brother!" Ash said, sipping at a beer.

Gabriel nodded and turned back to Elena.

"Why couldn't you have been this guy's guardian. I like him a heckuva lot better than those Winchester boys." He said.

"You're the one who made me their guardian." She fired back, shoving him.

"You know, Ash, it's been good. But… I gotta get Elena back on earth. She's needed. We'll come back to see you at some point." Gabriel said.

Elena sighed. "Zachariah… he…"

"I know what he did to you. You've got invisible written all over you." Gabriel said, nodding.

"How come Ash can see me?" she asked.

"The rules are different for a dead guy. Just like an angel can see you, any spirit'll be able to see you too. What you're looking at is basically Ash's soul in a corporeal body because that's how heaven works." Gabriel explained.

"But when I go back… no one else will be able to see me. Not Dean or Sam. Bobby. My own brother." she shook her head, pulling at her braid.

"Well… yeah. But you know that was coming." Gabriel reminded her.

"Thanks for the empathy, asshole." She snapped, glaring at him.

"There's that fire. You're gonna need that, trust me. It's gonna be hard, Elena. I'm gonna be there. Cas is gonna be there but for a while, we're gonna be all you have. So you have to be strong." Gabriel said, putting his hands on her cheeks.

"Aren't I usually?" she asked in a small voice.

"Yeah, you are. Strongest woman I know. And I know some women." He said with a wink.

She let out a laugh and shook her head. Gabriel simply smiled.

"Let's get going." He said, taking her hand.

"See you later, Ash." Elena said.

He nodded, saluting them before they disappeared. Elena looked around to see that they were at Bobby's house.

"Why did you bring me here?" Elena asked, looking at Gabriel.

"You're still their guardian, Elena. They still need you to be here." Gabriel reminded her.

"So soon, though?" she whispered, feeling the weight of everything falling back on her shoulders.

He gave her a sympathetic look. When she heard a raised voice in the house, she looked at him with panic before running up to the door.

"Wait, Elena stop." He grabbed her arm.

"What?" she demanded.

"You sure you're ready?"

She shook her head.

"No."

But she pushed him away and slammed the door open. Dean, Sam, Bobby, and Cas were in there. They all turned to the door and their eyes widened as Elena and Gabriel ran in. For a moment, Elena had a hope that Zachariah and Gabriel were wrong. But her hopes fell when Dean, Bobby, and Sam all concentrated on Gabriel. Cas' eyes fell on her.

"What are you doing here?" Dean demanded, his voice hoarse.

"I'm…" Gabriel cut off when he saw Cas staring at her.

"Oh…" Cas sighed, realization hitting him.

Elena bit her lip as they all looked at him. They really couldn't see her. It was really real now. She was invisible to all but angels.

"Hi Cas." She said in a soft voice.

"Cas, what's going on?" Dean said.

The angel looked at him with sad eyes.

"You don't see her."

They all stared at him with confused faces.

"See who?" Sam asked as if they shouldn't have already known exactly who he was talking about.

Elena leaned against the wall, fighting her emotions. Gabriel and Cas were staring right at her.

"Elena?" Bobby said.

Her eyes flashed to him.

"What?" Dean and Sam said, looking at him.

"Elena is here?"

They looked at Gabriel and Cas before following their eyeline to where Elena was. When Dean's eyes fell on her, she felt herself falling apart. Tears slid down her cheeks as she knew that he was seeing nothing.

"Why can't we see her?" Dean asked.

"Zachariah… he made her… invisible… to the human eye. You can't see her because he made it to where you can't." Gabriel explained.

Sam and Bobby looked at him while Dean kept his eyes on the blank spot.

"Change her back." Dean said.

"Dean…" Cas began.

"You are an all powerful archangel. You're telling me you can't change her back?" he demanded, turning to glare at Gabriel.

"No, Gabriel." Elena said, shaking her head.

He looked at her.

"I know you can but don't. Zachariah says if we do… he'll make it permanent. I know you can probably undo that too but he's already threatened to go after my brother and my friends. You can't. Not now. We'll figure out a way… later." Elena said, her voice breaking a few times as she did so.

"She's right… Gabriel." Cas said.

"What? What did she say?" Dean demanded.

"I can't." Gabriel said.

They stared at him.

"What do you mean?" Sam said through gritted teeth, getting angry now.

"Elena said that I can't and she's right. I physically can. I have the power but… Zachariah will not give up on separating her from you. If we push him… he'll start killing." Gabriel said.

Dean looked as though he would attack Gabriel for a moment before he staggered to a chair, sitting in it. He leaned over and ran his hand through his hair.

"Why did he have to do this, huh? Why her?" Dean said.

Elena bit her lip and walked to him, squatting in front of him. She put her hands on his knees and he didn't react.

"He can't feel me either?" she murmured.

"It's like you're… not there." Gabriel explained.

She nodded, not taking her hands away.

"Where is she, right now?" Dean asked, knowing that Gabriel was talking to Elena.

Gabriel sighed and looked at Elena, who was crying silently as she looked up at him.

"She's in front of you." Cas said, stepping forward.

Dean looked down, his eyes searching the area in front of him. His eyes swept over hers several times as she looked up at him.

"She's kneeling there. You can't feel it but her hands are on your knees."

Dean sighed and looked down at his knees.

"She's right here?" he whispered and she saw one lonely tear fall down his face.

"Dean…" Elena bowed her head as she spoke, sobs threatening to tear out of her throat.

"I love you. I am… gonna stop crying any second now. And I am going to be so freaking strong. For you, Dean. I promise I will do it for you. And I will get back to you, as soon as I can. And then I'm gonna kill Zachariah, also for you. Well and a little bit for me, I guess." She said, smiling slightly as she knew he would laugh at that if he could hear it.

"Is she saying anything?" Elena sighed and let her head bow down.

"She said she's gonna be strong. That she's gonna find her way back to you and…" Gabriel cut off, smirking as Elena looked up at him.

"She said she's gonna kill Zachariah for both of you."

Dean let out a chuckle and she smiled a little wider, knowing that she was right.

"She said she loved you, too." Cas threw in.

Dean sighed and looked up, somehow knowing exactly where to look as he looked deep in her eyes.

"I love you too." He said.

Elena sighed and stood, facing Bobby and Sam.

"I love them too, can you tell them that?" She asked Cas.

He nodded and relayed the information. They looked at the spot in front of Dean.

"She's standing up now, guys. You're looking at her ass." Gabriel said.

Elena laughed and shook her head, wiping away her tears.

"Love you too, Elena." they chorused, both blushing a bit.

She turned to face Gabriel and Castiel.

"I need to… uh… just for now. I can't…" she stammered before turning to walk out to take a breath.

When she turned, she saw that the two angels had followed her.

"What do I do now?" she asked, turning to face them.

"We could rob a bank." Gabriel shrugged.

She rolled her eyes and shook her head.

"You know, I think my abilities are growing. I apparrated. Not far… only about ten feet. But that's good, right? Also, I changed my shoes." She said, pointing down.

"Course they are. Zachariah thought he was bringing you up to heaven to keep you trapped so he could threaten you some more but really… he was doing something else. Something I wanted him to do all along." Gabriel said.

"What's that?" Elena asked.

"You needed a little touch of heaven to really dive deep into that DNA I gave you. When he brought you here, let's just say that it was like turning on the switch to what you can really be. Zachariah brought you there to be his plaything. Little did he know that he was creating our biggest weapon." The archangel explained.

"What are you talking about?" Elena and Cas asked at the same time.

"It means we got some work to do. And it means that you, my darling, are our own little superwoman." Gabriel said with a smirk.

Elena crossed her arms over her chest.

"Does this mean I really can kill Zachariah?" she asked.

Gabriel and Cas exchanged wary looks.

"Sorry, this is your brother I'm talking about." She sighed.

"No, you've earned the right… he's given you the right." Cas nodded, turning back to her.

She couldn't hide a small smile that bloomed on her face.

"Where do we start?" she asked.

"We're gonna build those abilities of yours up, girl. You, me, and Cassie boy. And when we're done, well you'll be able to take on any supernatural being you choose. Especially with that trusty little dagger of yours." Gabriel said.

Elena looked down at it, pulling it out.

"What can't this kill? For future reference." She questioned, looking at it.

"Angels. Higher level demons. Lucifer." Gabriel listed.

"So don't even think about going after him on your own… ever." Cas said.

"I'm not stupid enough." she scoffed.

"It won't kill anything that isn't corporeal. It has to have a real body." Gabriel said.

"Well that's not too shabby." She said, putting it back in the sheath.

"You gonna be okay? We need to have your concentration for this."

Elena sighed and looked up at them, nodding.

"I'm pissed off. I'm angry enough that I will do anything. So train me up. Teach me whatever you want. I will do anything." She said.

"All right. Let's get started." Gabriel said, nodding.

Elena looked at Cas, who nodded too.

"Let's get started." She agreed.

* * *

**Author's Note: I'm really sorry that it took so long for me to write this chapter. The thing is, I have known that this was going to happen since I started writing the Hells Bells. It's been in my head for a very long time so I wanted to make sure that I did it justice. I hope you didn't hate it and/or don't hate me for separating Elena and Dean. But this part was the reason I started writing this story.**

**I know it's sad to separate them but I did it for a lot of reasons. **

**1. This is the when the promised time between Castiel and Elena comes about. They will be together A LOT. As will Gabriel and Elena.**

**2. Elena will become even more badass.**

**3. This will push Sam and Dean together. This is a good thing.**

**4. Crowley is coming back. He'll be able to see Elena and she'll need his help.**

**REVIEW PLEASE!**


	17. Chapter 17

**Disclaimer: I do not own TVD or SPN**

**Thanks to SeargantPixie, DrawingMyHeartOut, Nyssandria, JMHUW, Dark-Supernatural-Angel, RHatch89, MrsMaeveSalvatoreMikaelson, xxPaige23xx, Hollywood17, imusic247, LineChokor, diehardromantic, slayerdiaries, chiwi, and the two guests for reviewing!**

**A few things:**

**1. You guys. You're all amazing and fantastic and wonderful and my favorite people in the whole wide world. You make me as happy as burgers make Cas. I know it sounds really weird and I'm sure that some of you who are authors will understand, but that some of you were actually moved to tears by my writing is actually really exciting. It means that I'm doing good and that is like, 'do a happy dance' exciting. I know it's weird and a little demented but I never claimed to be normal. If I was, this fic wouldn't be getting any readers or reviews. So thank you all for being amazing.**

**2. Italics are flashbacks.**

**3. Elena's outfits are on my profile.**

**4. Lucy's baaaaack! (sort of)**

* * *

Elena sighed as they walked onto the field. They were still in Sioux Falls and they'd snuck onto the empty football field.

"Are you going to teach me how to do a perfect spiral, sensei?" Elena asked, looking up at the bright moon.

"Unfortunately, no." Gabriel said, smirking at her.

Cas just stared between them with a clueless expression. Elena looked around as she breathed in the cool night air. They'd given her a few days to get used to everything. There was a lot to get used to. More than she'd expected. She wished that they'd started her on training right away. She'd been avoiding Sam and Dean because they weren't on a case. But her newfound switched on abilities gave her something else. She didn't have to sleep. That's when Elena realized that she truly wasn't even a little bit human anymore. Gabriel had been on the receiving end of her anger when she discovered that.

"_What do you mean, I don't have to sleep anymore?" she shouted, glaring at him._

"_Elena you have angel DNA in you. That comes with certain perks." Gabriel shrugged, drinking casually from a bottle of whiskey._

"_It's inhuman!" she yelled, throwing a pillow at him and causing him to duck it._

_They'd rented out a hotel room but it really wasn't necessary now that she discovered that she didn't have to sleep._

"_Well then it's a good thing you're not human any more." He said, smirking at her._

_Cas was simply sitting there, watching this verbal tennis match with tired eyes._

"First, the most basic thing that you already seem to have a taste for." Gabriel said, turning to her.

"Teleporation?" she questioned.

"Nope. The clothes." Gabriel said.

She looked down at the jeans and long sleeved t-shirt she threw on before coming here.

"I could have just put on workout clothes." Elena reminded him.

"But you didn't have to. Concentrate on something you would want to wear."

Elena closed her eyes and visualized an outfit that she would have worn to work out. It was a good thing that she could use this power because most of her clothing was at Bobby's. She felt different and when she opened her eyes, she was wearing the exact outfit that she'd visualized.

"I did it!" she exclaimed, in awe over the fact that she could change her own clothing now.

"It figures that you would be able to do that automatically." Gabriel said with a smirk.

"Why? Cause I'm a girl?" Elena asked.

"Because I have seen your collection of shoes and I've seen you shopping. Maybe we should let you take Michael and Lucifer shopping. I'm sure they'd give up their rivarly and run out holding hands just to get away from you." the archangel said.

"I am not that bad." Elena said, rolling her eyes.

"Hmm." Gabriel and Cas said at the same time.

Her head snapped back to them and she squinted her eyes.

"All right. Jacket off. Start running." Gabriel said, gesturing to the track to change the subject.

"What?" she said, staring at him with a furrowed brow.

"This training is not going to be easy, sweetheart. You are going to have to be in good physical shape or you will be exhaused all the time. That won't be too good for our boys if you can't get your ass off the ground to protect them." Gabriel said.

"I am in good shape!" she argued.

"Yeah… we'll see. Start running." Gabriel said.

"What are you, my drill seargant?" she grumbled as she ripped the jacket off and took off running.

Cas turned to Gabriel once she was out of earshot.

"It is not necessary for her to do physical training. You're attempting to distract her." he said.

Gabriel turned to him, sighing.

"She needs distracting right now little brother. Trust me." he said.

* * *

"Dean… if we're not going to leave town to go on a hunt, could we at least check this thing out that's happening here?" Sam asked, walking up to where Dean was sitting on the motel room couch.

Bobby had gotten tired of Dean's drunken sour mood a few days ago and kicked them out.

"There's a case here?" Dean grunted, looking at him through glazed over eyes.

Sam handed him a cup of coffee.

"A man, Benny Sutton, was murdered a few days ago in his trailer. There was a witness who says he saw the murderer climb in and out of the tin can. Got a clear view of his face and recognized him immediately as Clay Thompson." Sam explained, holding up a photo.

"This doesn't sound very weird to me." Dean said, glaring down at the coffee cup.

"Drink, Dean." Sam urged him.

"Why?" he snapped, glaring at his brother now.

"Because you're drunk off your ass and I need you to be in good shape for this." Sam replied.

"Why? It's not…" Dean began.

"Clay Thompson died five years ago." the younger hunter interrupted him.

Dean stared at him for a minute before nodding.

"I'm gonna go take a shower. Try and call Bobby and see if he's got our back on this?" Dean sighed, standing up and walking to the bathroom with the coffee cup still in his hands.

"Well at least he's not drinking… for now." Sam sighed.

* * *

"Bobby, listen, when you get this message, call! Okay?" Sam said into the voicemail for the tenth time.

Dean looked back at him as they walked up to the diner in their black suits.

"Is he still not home? How far could he get in that chair?" he said, shaking his head.

"So, what do we do?" Sam asked as they opened the door.

They turned to see the witness to the murder sitting in a booth in the corner of the dine.

"Well...Guess we just do it ourselves." Dean shrugged, walking to him.

"Mr. Wells, why don't you tell us what you saw in your own words?" Dean asked as they sat on the other side of the booth, their backs facing the door.

"Call me digger." Mr. Wells said gruffly.

"Digger? Who gave you that name?" Dean said, smirking slightly as he sipped at a black coffee.

"I did." the man replied, narrowing his eyes at Dean.

"You gave yourself your own nickname? You can't do that." Dean said, furrowing his brow at the man with confusion.

"Who died and made you queen?" Digger shot back.

Dean glared at him for a moment before Sam intervened.

"Okay. Uh, why don't you just tell us what you saw?" he asked.

"I saw Clay Thompson climb into Benny Sutton's trailer through the window. Couple minutes later, Clay walked out, and Benny's dead." The man said as if he'd explained this a thousand times before.

"And, uh..." Dean held up the same photo that Bobby showed them. "… is this the guy you saw?" he asked.

"Well, he was all covered with mud, but, yeah. That's Clay." Digger nodded, squinting at the photo.

Sam and Dean exchanged a wary look.

"And you are aware that Clay Thompson died five years ago?" Sam questioned.

"Yep." He confirmed.

"And you're positive that it was this guy?" Dean asked skeptically.

"You calling me a liar?" Digger demanded.

Sam shook his head as Dean stared back.

"No, no, no. Of course not. Look. Can you think of any reason why Clay Thompson alive or dead would want to kill Benny Sutton?" the younger brother asked, leaning forward.

"Hell, yeah." Digger chuckled. "Well, five years ago, Benny's the one that killed Clay in the first place." the man nodded, leaning back.

Sam and Dean stared at him, surprised.

"Is that a fact?" Dean said.

"Well, yeah, so-called 'hunting accident'. Now, if you ask me... Clay came back from the grave to get a little payback." Digger said, smirking.

"Go on." Dean urged.

Digger opened his mouth to say something but looked up.

"Owen, put down the cupcake and pick up an apple… okay? Okay. I love you." they heard a female voice say behind them.

"Heads up." Digger warned them, as the female sheriff approached.

"Digger." She greeted, walking up to stand in front of the table.

"Sheriff." He replied, looking down at the table.

"Gentlemen. I'm sheriff Jody Mills. I don't believe we've had the pleasure." She said, looking at Sam and Dean.

"Agents Dorfman and Neidermeyer. FBI." Dean said as the two pulled out their badges to show to her.

"Welcome to Sioux Falls, gentlemen. Can I ask you what you're doing with Digger here?" she said, looking at the man.

"They're doing their job. They believe me, sheriff." Digger said triumphantly, insinuating that she wasn't doing her job because she most likely didn't believe him.

"The FBI believes a dead man committed a murder?" she asked skeptically.

"Look, we're just asking a few questions, sheriff. That's all." Sam said, smiling at her.

"Of course, if a dead man didn't commit the murder, then, uh, who did?" Dean said, smirking.

She stared at him for a moment, not impressed.

"What'd you say your jurisdiction here was again?" she asked defensively.

"Our jurisdiction is wherever the United States government sends us." Dean replied, causing Sam to stomp on his foot.

Now was obviously not the time to be sassy but Dean wasn't quite getting that. If Elena were there… Sam cut himself off at the thought. Elena wasn't there to put Dean into place. Not this time. The realization made him stared down at his hands.

"Oh, yeah? How 'bout me and your supervisor have a little chat about that?" the sheriff asked.

Sam looked up at her, pulling out a business card.

"Absolutely." He nodded.

They watched as she dialed the number, both hoping that Bobby would pick up.

"Agent Willis speaking." They fought the urge to sigh with relief when they heard his voice on the other line.

Sheriff Mills stared at the phone with confusion for a second.

"Agent Willis, this is sheriff Jody Mills…" she stopped as if she'd realized something.

Her brow furrowed in confusion.

"Bobby?" she said, making Sam and Dean's eyes go wide.

"Excuse me?" they heard him say after a moment.

"Is this Bobby Singer?" she demanded through gritted teeth, her eyes flashing to Sam and Dean.

Sam and Dean exchanged a look, ready to run out of the place if she tried to arrest him.

"Listen, I don't know who this is, but... This is Agent Tom Willis of the FBI." Bobby said, sounding unconvicing.

"Bull crap." Sheriff Mills snapped before hanging up the phone.

"FBI, huh?" she addressed Sam and Dean, raising an eyebrow.

"So, uh... so you know Bobby Singer?" Sam said, trying to keep his voice lighthearted.

"That is a... a fun coincidence." Dean stammered.

"Here's what I know about Bobby Singer. He's a menace around here, ass-full of drunk-and-disorderly's and mail fraud. You understanding me?" she said, leaning forward with narrowed eyes.

"I think we all can agree that you've made yourself perfectly clear, yes." Dean said, sounding thoroughly scolded.

"So, whatever the three of you are planning, it ends here. Now. Ten-four on that, agents?" Sheriff Mills asked, backing away.

"Yeah." They agreed at the same time.

* * *

"I hate you both." Elena mumbled, collapsing on the bed.

"Did you think it was going to be sunshine and roses?" Gabriel asked, watching as she curled up with a pillow.

"I thought it was going to be fun stuff. Teleporting and kicking your ass all over the place." she said, glaring at him.

"You could really use a shower, sweetheart." Gabriel said.

"I only smell cause you made me run five miles!" she snapped, throwing the pillow at him before standing.

When she turned back to them, she was doing so with a smirk.

"Oh, and you know why the motel owner was giving you a weird look? Because you two were checking in together. You just got one queen sized bed. He couldn't see me. So he thinks that you two are sharing a bed. Let that stew in your minds while I clean off the stench of your stupid training." She ranted, turning back and slamming the door shut.

Cas looked at Gabriel with wide eyes, understanding the idea that Elena was trying to get across. The archangel winked at him, causing him to squint at him with an unimpressed look.

"There's something going on in this town, Gabriel. The lightning storms. I know you feel it too." Cas said.

"Yeah, I do. So what? It's none of our business. Not every supernatural thing is out there for us to help these humans take care of. Sometimes it just has to happen." Gabriel said.

"It's not just some supernatural thing and you know it. You know exactly what is causing it and you know why. We can't keep this from her for much longer. Lucifer is angry that he can't get in her mind anymore so he's trying to attract her attention other ways. And he's using…" Cas was cut off by a shrill scream.

They looked up with surprise to see Elena run out of the bathroom soaking wet with a towel wrapped around her.

"There's a spider in the shower." She said, her eyes wide.

"A spider?" Gabriel said.

"Go kill it!" she said, pointing.

The two angels exchanged strange looks, wondering exactly what they'd gotten themselves into.

* * *

"You know how many times we called? Where have you been?" Dean demanded as they walked through the house.

"Playing murderball." Bobby sighed, turning his wheelchair around to face him.

Dean sniffed, making a face as he did so.

"What's that smell? Is that soap? Did you clean?" he asked, noticing the cleanliness of the place.

Both of them knew that the last person to clean it was Elena and they hadn't heard anything from her in a few days, hence Dean's drinking.

"What are you, my mother? Bite me!" Bobby shot back, glaring at them.

"Bobby, seriously." Sam said.

"I been working. You know, trying to find a way to stop the devil." The older hunter reminded them.

They stared at him for a second before nodding.

"Find anything?" Dean asked hopefully.

"What do you think?" Bobby replied.

"Bobby, it's just… there's a case less than five miles from your house." Sam said, gesturing to the door.

"What, the… the Benny Sutton thing? That's what this is about?" Bobby scoffed.

"You knew about this?" Dean asked, surprised that he'd done nothing about it.

"Hell, yes. I checked into it already. There's nothing here." He said with certainty.

"Except a witness who saw a dead guy commit murder." Sam said with raised eyebrows.

"What witness? Digger Wells?" Bobby questioned.

"Yeah. So?" Dean shot back.

"So, he's a drunk."

"Well, what about the lightning storms? They look like omens." Sam suggested.

Bobby rolled his eyes, shaking his head.

"Except in February in South Dakota in storm season. Guys, I thought it was something, too. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar." He shrugged.

"So who killed the guy?" Sam asked.

"Take your pick. This Benny Sutton guy was a grade-a son of a bitch. There's a list of the living a year long wouldn't mind putting a cap in his ass." Bobby informed them.

"So, you're telling us... nothing?" Dean asked skeptically.

"Sorry. Looks like you wasted time on this one." Bobby said dismissively.

Dean and Sam exchanged an uncertain glance.

"All right." Dean sighed.

* * *

Elena was sitting on the bed braiding her hair into two braids over her shoulders as she watched Gabriel and Cas. They were sitting in chairs staring back at her.

"What?" she asked, freaked out by their staring.

"Do you feel anything? Any instincts going off?" Gabriel asked.

Elena shrugged.

"I mean, something is happening. There's a part of my mind that keeps twinging but I thought that would happen if I'm away from… Sam and Dean for too long." Elena said, picking at her jean shorts.

They exchanged a wary look.

Why?" she asked, looking between them.

They didn't answer.

"Should I be feeling something? What aren't you telling me?" Elena asked, moving to stand up.

* * *

Sam and Dean were driving back towards their motel when Dean pulled over, looking back at a sign that they passed.

"What's up?" Sam asked.

"Isn't that the graveyard back there?" Dean asked.

"Yeah. So what? Bobby already checked it out." Sam shrugged.

"And? What, Bobby's never wrong? Come on. We'll take a peek, and then we'll hit the road. Can't hurt." Dean shrugged.

As they walked through the cemetary with flashlights and shovels, they were looking around for Clay Thompson's grave. Sam spotted it and gestured to it.

"Hey." He said, shining his light over the grass.

"That look fresh to you?" Dean asked, looking at the ground.

"Yeah, actually." Sam nodded.

They looked at each other and sighed before beginning to dig up the grave. Once they got down to it, they saw that parts of it were smashed up. They opened it to see that it was empty.

"What is going on here?" Sam said, looking at Dean.

"I don't know, but something stinks." Dean confirmed.

* * *

As they walked into Clay Thompson's house, trying to keep as quiet as they could, they watched out for any signs of life. They separated and, as soon as Dean walked into the living room, he was attacked. He fought the man off and threw him to the ground, holding his gun on the man.

"Don't shoot me! Please! There's money in the safe." He pleaded, putting his hands over his face.

Sam ran in, pointing his gun at him as well.

"We don't want your money." Dean said, staring down at him.

"What do you want? Anything. Please..." he said, cowering.

"You're Clay Thompson, right?" Sam asked, staring at him.

"Who are you?" Clay asked, finally looked up at them.

"FBI." Sam said, reaching down and hauling him to his feet.

Clay stared at them with wide eyes.

"FBI? Oh, my God. This is about Benny." He said.

"Wha… what about Benny?" Dean said, squinting at him.

"He killed me! He shot me in the back! I'm supposed to let him get away with that?" Clay said, trying to appeal to them.

"Hold up. Are… are you confessing?" Dean asked, taken aback.

Clay sighed, putting his hands up in surrender.

"Please. I'll go with you. Just… just don't wake my kids."

"Y-you'll go with us where?" Sam asked, confused.

"Jail." Clay said as though it was obvious.

"Let me get this straight. You're Clay Thompson, and you died five years ago?" Dean questioned.

"Yes." He nodded.

"And three days ago you climbed out of your grave, and you killed Benny Sutton?" Sam asked.

"Yes."

"So you are, in fact, a dead guy." Dean confirmed.

"I guess. I-I-I don't know what I am." Clay said.

They heard a creak and turned their flashlights to see that Clay's wife had entered.

"Clay? I called 911." She said in a weak voice.

"It's okay, honey. These men are the FBI. They're here about Benny." Clay said.

"Why don't you come with us, Mr. Thompson? I think that'd be best." Dean said, reaching out to take his arm.

As they walked outside, Dean pulled his gun out while Clay walked in front of them.

"Dean." Sam said, close to stopping him.

"He's a monster." Dean fired back.

"He's a soccer dad." Sam said, pointing at the guy in the bathrobe.

"What do you want to do with him?" he hissed.

"Freeze! Drop your guns!" Sheriff Mills' voice suddenly rang out.

They stopped short and put their guns on the grass.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. All right. Hey." Dean said. "Remember the guy you said that was dead and couldn't possibly commit murder? There he is." He pointed to Clay.

"And?" Sheriff Mills asked with a raised eyebrow.

"And? And you're welcome - for catching the undead killer zombie." Dean scoffed.

"Whatever he is or isn't that don't give you the right to shoot him in the middle of the street." She said, walking around to put cuffs on Dean.

"Shoot me?" Clay demanded, sounding offended.

"You're free to go, Mr. Thompson." She said, smiling at him.

"Free to go?!" Dean exclaimed.

"I can't believe you were gonna kill me." Clay argued, staring at him with wide eyes.

"You're a zombie!"

"I'm a taxpayer!" he said as he shoved past them and Sheriff Mills led them to a police car.

* * *

"So, what? Sheriff's on the take?" Dean sighed as they sat in the jail cell.

"The zombies are paying her off?" Sam suggested.

They turned to see Bobby and Sheriff Mills talking outside of the cell at a desk.

"So, what? Now they're friends?" Dean snapped, sounding angry.

Sam turned to face him warily.

"Dean…" he began.

"Don't start, Sam." the older brother snapped.

"You can't keep doing this Dean. I know that you miss her. I'm miss her too but she would not want you going crazy like this without her. She didn't intend on you to sit on your ass or to take your anger out on those around you. Or for you to shoot guys before you find out what they really are. Come on, Dean. You're better than this." Sam said.

Dean was up and slamming him against the wall in a flash.

"You do not get to tell me what she would have wanted. She wouldn't have wanted us to be separated. Past that, nothing else matters." He growled before letting Sam go and turning away from him.

* * *

"Why didn't you tell me about this before?" Elena demanded, pacing the motel room.

"We weren't sure." Cas said, looking down at his hands.

"Lightning storms? People raising from the dead? I'd say that's a pretty sure sign that some shit is going down." She snapped.

"We wanted to discover what was behind it." Gabriel said.

"And?" she said.

They sighed and looked at each other.

* * *

"Bobby, I thought the sheriff hated you?" Sam said as they walked out of the police station.

"She did till five days ago." Bobby replied, wheeling himself along.

"What happened five days ago?" Dean asked.

"The dead started rising all over town." The older hunter replied.

Sam and Dean stopped short.

"So you knew about this?" Sam demanded as Bobby turned to face them.

"Yep." He said remorselessly.

They stared at him with unbelieving eyes.

"I think what Sam meant to say is, you lied to us?" Dean growled angrily.

"Look I told you there was nothing here. And there isn't. Not for you." Bobby said, shaking his head.

"There are zombies here." The older Winchester reminded him through a clenched jaw.

"There's zombies... and then there are zombies. Come with me." Bobby said, turning to wheel into the parking lot.

* * *

Gabriel and Cas followed Elena as she hurried up to the house.

"You have to stop." Gabriel said.

"You shouldn't have kept this from me. Not this." Elena said.

"We knew you would do this, Elena. You've barely gotten into your training. You can't take this on. Not this." Cas said, catching her arm.

"If it puts Dean, Sam, or Bobby in any kind of danger, you bet your ass I can." Elena said.

They were interrupted by the Impala pulled up along with Bobby's van. Dean and Sam walked up behind Bobby but none of their eyes fell on the angels.

"What…" Elena began.

"You're not the only one. We can be invisible whenever we want." Gabriel said.

Cas looked as though he was pained as he held onto the pillar on the porch with white knuckles.

"Cas?" she asked, walking to him.

"It's a bit more work for our buddy here. He's weakening very slowly." Gabriel explained.

"I'll be fine." Cas grunted, sounding as though he was in pain.

"Maybe you should sit this one out, Cassie boy." The archangel suggested.

Cas opened his mouth to argue but Elena put her hand on his shoulder.

"Don't waste your energy. Not with what is coming. Go back to the hotel. We'll be there in a few minutes." Elena said.

Cas sighed and nodded, his face too pale as he closed his eyes and disappeared. Elena turned to face Gabriel.

"How worried do we have to be about that?" she asked.

"Very. But we can't afford to worry about it just now." He said, turning to the closed door.

He reached out and touched her shoulder and they were suddenly standing inside.

"You want to tell us what the hell…" Dean stopped short when a woman walked into the dining room where they were all standing.

"Oh, hey. I didn't realize you were bringing company." The woman said.

Elena studied her for a moment before drawing her dagger from the sheath tied onto her shorts.

"Steady, girl." Gabriel said.

"She's a zombie." Elena argued.

"I know." He nodded.

"It's four A.M., babe. You didn't need to cook." Bobby said, smiling up at her as he wheeled himself in.

"Oh, please! I'll get some more plates." She said, smiling at Sam and Dean before walking out.

"Who was that?" Dean asked as Bobby turned himself around to look at them.

"Karen. My wife." Bobby said, almost sounding guilty.

Dean squinted at him.

"Your new wife?" he demanded, sounding angry.

Elena turned to look at him, confused by the quick anger in his voice. He hadn't become angry that quickly in a very long time. She sighed and looked down at her hands, already realizing that their separation was affecting him as much as it was affecting her. She'd been avoiding him for a reason. She didn't want to look into his eyes and see the pain that she knew was present in her eyes as well.

"My dead wife." Bobby admitted.

Elena's grip tightened on her knife as she pushed thoughts of the sadness of her and Dean's situation to the back of her mind.

"Not yet. We need to figure out what is going on first. Come on, Elena. You're a hunter. Act like one. It's not shoot first, ask questions later unless you've adopted more than just a surly attitude from the elder Winchester."

She glared at Gabriel before sliding her knife into the sheath and leaning against the wall with her arms crossed.

* * *

"This is incredible, Mrs. Singer." Dean complimented as he ate the apple pie that Karen offered them.

"Thank you, Dean." She said with a smile, setting out pie for Sam and Bobby.

Dean was on his third piece.

"What? It is." He shrugged at Sam's judgmental look.

"It's great, Karen. Thanks. Could you, um, just give us a minute?" Bobby asked, recognizing that the boys were about to burst with questions and accusations.

Karen nodded and stroked his cheek before turning to walk out. She shut the door behind her before walking into the kitchen.

"Are you crazy? What the hell?" Dean hissed, shoving the delicious pie away.

"Dean, I can explain." Bobby said, holding his hands up.

"Explain what? Lying to us? Or the American girl zombie making cupcakes in your kitchen?!" he demanded quietly.

"First of all, that's my wife, so watch it." Bobby shot back.

"Bobby, whatever that thing is in there, it is not your wife." Sam reminded him.

"And how do you know that?" he snapped.

Sam and Dean sighed and shook their heads, knowing that if this was happening in any other town, Bobby would be on their side automatically. He was blinded by his devotion to his wife.

"Are you serious?" Sam said.

"You think I'm an idiot, boy?" Bobby growled. "My dead wife shows up on my doorstep, I'm not gonna test her every way I ever learned?"

"So what is it? Zombies? Revenant?" Dean demanded.

"Hell if I can tell. She's got no scars, no wounds, no reaction to salt, silver, Holy water..." he said, shaking his head.

"Bobby, she crawled out of her coffin." Dean stressed.

"No, she didn't. I cremated her. Somehow, some way, she's back." Bobby said.

They stared at him with surprise.

"That's impossible." Sam murmured, looking at Dean warily.

"Tell me about it." Bobby nodded.

"You bury her ashes?" the younger Winchester asked.

"Yeah." The older hunter replied, nodding.

"Where?" Dean demanded.

"In the cemetery. That's where they all rose from." Bobby informed them.

"How many?"

"15, 20, I made a list. Uh, there's Karen... Clay... Sheriff Mills… her little boy came back." he said.

"And there were no signs? No omens?" Sam questioned.

"Well, there were the lightning storms." Bobby shrugged.

"That's what we said. What else?" Dean asked.

Bobby stared at them for a moment before gesturing to his study.

* * *

"Heard enough?" she asked Gabriel.

"Nope. We still don't know why Lucy is doing this." he said.

Elena raised an eyebrow skeptically. She wasn't stupid. He knew exactly why Lucifer was doing it but he wouldn't tell her for some reason.

"And through the fire stood before me a pale horse. And he that sat atop him carried a scythe, and I saw since he had risen, they, too, shall rise, and from him and through him." They heard Bobby reading from a book as they walked into the study.

"So, what, death is behind this?" Dean asked, looking around.

"Death? Like Grim Reaper death?" Sam said.

"Did they really think he wouldn't show up? Why else would Lucifer raise him except to raise a little hell?" Gabriel sighed, shaking his head.

"Stop criticizing." Elena snapped icily.

"Down girl." he replied, making her glare at him.

"Awesome. Another horseman. Must be Thursday." Dean sighed, rubbing his face.

Elena watched him, wanting to see if he'd reverted back to any old bad habits since her absence.

"Bobby... why would Death raise people in a podunk town like Sioux falls?" Sam asked.

"It's not about the town. It's about the people in the town, Sam. Namely the people in this room." Elena sighed, wishing they would understand that.

"I don't know." Bobby said and her head snapped to him.

"He's lying." she said.

"Hopelessly devoted to poor zombie Karen in there. He doesn't want those boys to know why Death is doing what he's doing in this exact town at this exact time." Gabriel said.

"You know, if Death is behind this, then whatever these things are... it's not good. You know what we have to do here." Dean said.

Bobby stared at them and Elena watched with sadness as tears built in his eyes.

"She doesn't remember anything, you know." He said, his voice breaking slightly.

"What do you mean?" Dean asked.

"Being possessed, me killing her... her coming back."

"Bobby..." Dean sighed.

"No, no, don't Bobby me. Just... just listen, okay?" they stopped and heard Karen humming as she cleaned up the kitchen.

"She hums when she cooks. She always... used to hum when she cooked. Tone deaf as all hell, but... and I never thought I would hear it again. Look, just read revelation. The dead rise during the apocalypse. There's nothing in there that says that's bad! Hell, maybe it's the one good thing that comes out of this whole bloody mess." Bobby tried to convince them.

Elena looked at Gabriel and he shook his head.

"And what would you do if you were us?" Dean asked.

"I know what I'd do. And I know what you think you got to do. But... I'm begging you. Please. Please. Leave her be." he pleaded.

* * *

"So, what do you think?" Sam asked, looking over at Dean as they sat in the diner.

"There's nothing to think about. I'm not gonna leave Bobby at home with the bride of Frankenstein." Dean replied gruffly, drinking his coffee.

"Then what do you want to do? Just walk in there in front of Bobby and blow her skull off? Think about this Dean. Bobby is like a dad to us. If we do this… he'll never forget it. He'll never forgive us." Sam said.

Dean stared down at his plate of eggs and bacon, a hardened expression.

"If she decides that Bobby's face is the blue plate special, I'd like to be there." he said, ignoring the sense that Sam was making.

"Fine." The younger brother sighed. "See what else we can find out."

Elena watched as he walked out, turning back to Dean and putting her hand on his shoulder.

"What am I going to do with you?" she murmured before turning to follow Sam out.

* * *

It was easy enough to climb in and out of the Impala while Dean wasn't looking as long as she closed the doors very quietly. She was currently leaning against it next to him, watching Bobby's house from afar. She felt the woman approaching and turned to glare at her. Apparently Dean didn't sense it because he jumped when she walked up next to him.

"Oops. Did I scare you?" she asked, smiling pleasantly.

"No. No. No. There's... nothing scary about you at all." Dean said unconvincingly, trying and failing to smile.

"Feel like some lunch?" Karen questioned, gesturing back to the house.

"Nope." Elena said.

Suddenly her eyes slid past Dean and locked with Elena's. She stared at her for a moment before turning back to Dean. Elena's eyes widened. There was no way that she should have been able to see her.

"Uh... I'm good. Thanks." Dean refused.

Elena thought back to what Zachariah had said.

"_Whatever becomes a threat to Sam and Dean will be able to see you."_

"Oh. Come there's more pie." Karen said with a welcoming smile.

But how did she know not to say anything about Elena to Dean? She must have been able to sense that there was something different about Elena.

"I don't think that Bobby wants me inside." Dean said, searching for an excuse.

"Guess it'll have to be our secret, then, huh? Come on." Karen said, gesturing for him to follow before trudging back towards the house.

* * *

"Lucifer knows that something has changed. I think he possibly even knows what Zachariah did to Elena. If he senses that she's weak…" Cas began.

"She's not weak, though. She hasn't broken down in days. Do you know how much strength that takes?" Gabriel reminded him.

"I know that she's strong. You know that she's strong. But does she know it? If she doesn't, she can let weakness take over her. And that's when Lucifer can strike." Cas said, staring at his brother.

Gabriel shook his head.

"We won't let him."

* * *

"I'm gonna go out on a limb and guess that you like pies. Did you bake all these?" Dean asked as he ate a piece of cherry pie, looking around at the dozen pies that filled the kitchen.

"I don't know what it is. Since I got back, I can't stop baking." Karen said, smiling as she kneaded more dough.

Elena was sitting on the counter staring at the woman, waiting for her to notice her.

"Yeah, when do you have time to sleep?" Dean scoffed, shaking his head.

"I don't." Karen said, serious.

"Yeah? Neither do I? Want to share sleepless stories?" Elena said, causing Karen's eyes to flash over to her.

She was doing a very good job of pretending like Elena wasn't there.

"Must be the excitement." Karen said.

"Or being dead." Dean said bluntly, making Elena smirk.

Karen sighed, turning to face Dean. Elena jumped off and stood next to him, prepared to defend him.

"I know you don't trust me." she said, her eyes flickering between them.

Dean didn't notice it because he wasn't looking for it but Elena knew that she was speaking to both of them.

"Nope, I do not." Elena replied, crossing her arms over her chest.

She was quickly finding that it was much easier to be around Dean if she was able to concentrate her attention on something that was threatening him.

"Why would you say that?" Dean shrugged.

"Come on. That's why you're here, isn't it? Keeping an eye on me? I know who you are." Karen said, looking at Elena for a moment before concentrating on Dean again. "Just like I know Bobby's not the same mild-mannered scrap dealer I married. You hunt things. I… I'm a thing. I get it."

"Yeah, I am keeping an eye on you to make sure that you don't hurt any of **my** boys." Elena said, gesturing to Dean.

"So then you know that Sam and I would never let anything happen to Bobby. That he's like a father to us." Dean said.

"I understand. And he's lucky to have you looking out for him. But you're not the only one." Karen said.

"Is that so?" Dean and Elena asked at the same time.

"I… I remember everything, you know. When I died. That demon taking over my body... and the things it made me do. And Bobby having no choice but to... well, you know what he did. But I can see it in his eyes when he looks at me. The guilt. It weighs on him." Karen sighed, turning around.

"And you're protecting him. You don't want him to know that you know." Dean said.

Elena looked over at him. Karen turned back and smiled.

"You've been in love then." She said, her eyes flashing to Elena and back to him. "Then you'll understand better than anyone. He's my husband. My job is to bring him peace... not pain."

Elena bit her lip as she looked at Karen. Suddenly she got a horrible feeling and her eyes widened.

"If you touch a hair on their heads, I'll kill you." she promised before turning to run out of the room.

"Gabriel!" she shouted as she ran outside.

"Sheesh! So noisy!" he complained.

"Sam is in danger. I need you to take me there." she said, holding out her hand.

* * *

Sam knocked on the door hesitantly.

"Mrs. Jones?!" he called.

There was no answer and he looked around before looking down and noticing a few drops of blood on the ground. He reached out and tried the door to find that it was unlocked.

"Ezra Jones?" he called as he walked through the house.

He suddenly came across an old lady lying on a cot, coughing and foaming at the mouth. She gestured for him to come closer.

"Um... Ezra Jones?" he said hesitantly.

She gestured again, coughing and hacking disgustedly.

"W-what is it?" He asked. "You think maybe you could tell me from here?"

She simply continued to gesture and he sighed as he inched closer.

"Yeah. I'm gonna regret this." he said, leaning over her.

Suddenly she screamed and threw him onto the floor, attacking him. The gun in his hand skidded away. His head snapped to the right and he saw a man lying on the floor next to him, his stomach ripped open and his eyes lifeless as his skin was peeling off in chunks. Sam didn't have time to dwell on the disgusting scene before the woman was on top of him and trying to scratch the skin off of his face. Some of the foaming drool from her mouth landed on his cheek as she screamed on top of him. Suddenly she was wrenched off of him and whirled around. A slice appeared in her skin and then a gunshot fired. A hole appeared on her forehead she collapsed to the ground.

"What…" he began.

He jumped when Gabriel appeared out of nowhere and his gun was thrown into his lap.

"I'm telling him!" he hissed, jumping aside as if he was dodging a blow.

"You?" Sam asked, wiping the drool foam off of his cheek.

"Did I kill this one? No, that would be Elena. She wanted me to tell you so that you would know. Now we've got to get back to…" he disappeared before finished.

Sam stared at the spot he disappeared from with wide eyes.

* * *

"Keep your damn voices down. Karen's upstairs." Elena heard Bobby say as she and Gabriel snuck into the study.

Elena guessed by the look on Dean's face that Sam told him what happened.

"Oh, I'm sorry. We're a little tense right now. Who's old lady Jones?" Dean demanded.

"The first one to come up." Bobby said.

"First one to go bad." Sam corrected.

"Ah, she was always a nutty broad." The older hunter dismissed.

Elena rolled her eyes.

"Nutty how? Nutty like the way she ate her husband's stomach? Was that the level of nutty she was in life?" Dean growled, his hands clenching into fists.

Bobby stared at him for a moment.

"No." he sighed.

"Look, Bobby, I feel for you. But you have got to acknowledge that you're not exactly seeing this straight." Dean said.

"Bobby, whether you admit it or not, these things are turning. We have to stop them… all of them." Sam said, his eyes flashing to the stairs.

Bobby looked back before pulling a gun out and pointing at them.

"Time to go." he said as Elena's eyes widened.

Gabriel caught her arm before she could slap the gun out of his hand.

"What?" Dean said, as taken aback as she was.

"You heard me. Off my property." Bobby growled.

"Or what? You'll shoot?" Sam said, staring at him.

"If Karen turns, I will handle it my way." he said stubbornly.

"This is dangerous." Dean warned him.

Bobby cocked the gun, glaring at them with tears in his eyes. Elena slowly pulled her knife out of the sheath. Gabriel didn't stop her.

"I'm not telling you twice." He said.

She turned to the stairs as she heard the boys walk out.

* * *

When she pushed the door to the guest bedroom open, she saw that it was different. Instead of being strewn around, her clothing was folded neatly on the bed, all clean. Karen was sitting on the bed as well. She looked up at her as she entered and Elena saw that she was looking through the photo album.

"I knew you would come. I washed your clothes for you." Karen said, gesturing to the clothes.

"Why?" Elena asked, walking in.

She shrugged and turned back to the album.

"Why can't they see you?" she asked.

"Long story."

Karen looked back at her and sighed, setting the album down.

"I can tell you love them. Even Bobby. You're just trying to protect them." Karen said.

Elena simply stared at her.

"I love him." the woman said.

"I know you do, for right now. But who knows how long it will be before you lose your mind and try to eat him." Elena said.

Karen sighed and looked down at her feet.

"Just give me as much time as I can have. As soon as I start acting different, kill me. But please, just a little while longer. I know that you would give anything for a few more minutes with Dean. Please give this to me." Karen pleaded.

Elena bit her lip.

"Karen?" Bobby's voice floated up to them.

She looked at Elena.

"Go." Elena sighed, stepping aside as she pushed her knife back into the sheath.

Karen smiled gratefully.

"Thank you." she whispered as she passed.

* * *

"He's crazy." Dean said, shaking his head as they sat in the Impala.

"It's his wife, Dean." Sam sighed, running his fingers through his hair.

"So he goes full metal jacket on us? We're his family, Sam." Dean reminded him.

Sam looked over at him, taking in his haggard appearance. They both desperately needed sleep but they couldn't get any until this was taken care of.

"Look, man. Bigger fish, okay? I mean, we got a bunch of zombies about to turn this town into a giant chew toy." He said.

"Yeah, and he's alone in the house making pie with one of 'em!" Dean snapped.

"All right? So?" he said, wanting to know Dean's plan.

"So! I'm gonna have to go back there and… and… and kill her. That's the only thing I can think of." Dean said.

"If he sees you, you're a dead man." Sarm warned him unwillingly.

"Well, then, I guess I won't let him see me." Dean said, opening the door.

"Okay. I'll... head to town and rescue everyone… should be easy." Sam sighed.

"Sounds like." Dean said.

"I'm gonna need some help." Sam said, wondering if he should tell Dean about Elena.

"What about the sheriff?" Dean suggested.

Sam looked over at him with a raised eyebrow.

"Uh, last time I checked, the sheriff was pretty pro-zombie." He reminded him.

"Well, I guess you'll just have to convince her." Dean shrugged.

"How?"

"You're just gonna." He said simply.

* * *

"There. Does that feel better, honey?" Jody Mills asked her son, wiping his forehead with a cold cloth as he was burning up beneath her hand.

"I'm so hungry, Mommy." He whined, making her heart break a little.

"Oh, I know. I know. Mommy's gonna make you some soup, okay?" she asked, standing up.

"Okay." He nodded.

"I don't know what else to tell you, Doc. We checked the thermometer three times. His temperature is 111 degrees." Her husband said into the phone.

"Mommy." Owen whimpered.

"Hold on, doc." He handed the phone to Jody.

"I'm hungry!"

"Can you take that in to him?" Jody asked, handing Sean the soup.

"Dr. Dwight, it's Jody mills." She said into the phone.

* * *

Elena leaned against the doorframe as she watched Karen look out the window. Bobby wheeled himself in and panicked as he saw her.

"Karen, stay away from the windows. Karen? Karen?! Karen?" he said as she collapsed on the ground, coughing.

"I'm… I'm okay. Yeah? I'm okay." She said, looking up at Elena with panic.

Both of them knew.

"I just... I'm okay. I-I just got to be dizzy." She reassured him as he tried to help her up.

"You're burning up." Bobby said.

"Oh, I'm okay. I-I just need something to eat. And I'll be fine. Really." She said, attempting to smile.

Elena pushed herself off the wall and turned to walk downstairs, needed to find a gun.

* * *

"I don't know how to explain it, doctor. That's… that's why we're calling you. I..." Jody was cut off by a noise coming frm the living room.

"Sean? Owen?" she said, walking in there.

"Oh, my God!" she exclaimed when she saw her husband lying on the ground dead with her son on top of him with his mouth covered in blood.

The door slammed open and Sam bursted in, yanking her outside.

"Let's go!" he said, struggling with her.

"No!" she cried.

"Go!"

"My husband!" Jody wailed, trying to get back to the house as he shoved her away.

"Leave it! He's dead!" he said, finally succeeding in shoving her into the street.

"That was not my son!" she said, wiping her eyes as she paled.

"You're right. It wasn't. Listen, sheriff. Your town is in danger. People are in danger, and we need to help them now. Can you do that for me? Can you focus for me, sheriff? Sheriff?" Sam asked, shaking her.

She looked at him with wide eyes.

"How do we put them down?" she finally whispered.

"Head shot." Sam said.

"We're gonna need weapons."

"We can start by rounding up everybody we can find. Where is there a safe place we can take people?" Sam asked.

"Jail." She nodded.

"Right. Just, um... Give me a minute." Sam said regretfully before turning to run back into her house.

After a few moments, a gunshot fired.

* * *

"I'm so hungry, Bobby." Karen whimpered, clutching her stomach as she sweated profusely.

Elena was standing in the doorway waiting.

"I'll fix you something to eat in a minute." Bobby assured her with a slight smile, in denial about what was happening.

"I can feel it. It's happening." She said, nodding as her eyes flashed up to Elena.

"Shh, it's gonna be alright." Bobby murmured.

"No. It's not. I'm turning, Bobby. You know I am." She was still staring at Elena. "It's okay. Do it."

Elena sighed, walking forward with the gun.

"No way." Bobby said, shaking his head.

Her hand shook as she held it up to Karen's head and she stood on the other side of the bed.

"Please." Karen whispered.

"No." Bobby said again, clutching her hand.

"I remember." She said, making Elena stop as Karen looked deep into his eyes.

"You remember what?" he asked, sounding afraid of the answer.

"Everything. The demon inside me. You killing me. I remember." Karen said.

"Then you know... why I can't do it again." He said, tears streaming down his face.

Karen stared at him before turning to look at Elena.

"I remember something else, too. When I came back… there was a man." she said.

"What do you mean, a man?" Bobby asked, finally noticing that she wasn't looking at him.

"Is he here?" he demanded.

Karen looked back at him and shook her head.

"No, someone is here protecting you." she said.

Realization dawned on Bobby and he stared at the other side of the bed.

"Elena… what are you doing here?" he asked.

"She cares about you. But she's meant to be here. She's meant to hear this. At the grave. The man was so thin. Like a skeleton. And he told me to give you a message." Karen explained.

"Why didn't you tell me this before?" Bobby asked.

"You've seen so much. I just... I just wanted to see you smile." Karen said, reaching up to stroke his cheek.

"What was the message?" Bobby asked as him and Elena stared down at her.

* * *

As Dean opened the door, he heard a sudden gunshot. He ran to Bobby's bedroom and found him in there with Karen on the bed, dead.

"Bobby?" Dean said with hesitation, seeing the gun in his hand.

He was staring at a blank space across the bed.

* * *

"All right, if I hand you a gun and you see a dead person, I don't care if it's your friend, your neighbor, or your wife, you shoot for the head. That's the only way we survive." Sam instructed the townspeople gathered in the jail, passing out guns to those who knew how to use them.

"Uh, you mind telling us who the hell you are?" a man asked.

"Friend of Bobby Singer's." Sam replied.

"Town drunk." He asked.

"No, I-I thought..." he nodded at Digger. "… he was the town drunk."

"Who told you that?" Digger asked, sounding offended.

Sam paused, thinking it over.

"Bobby Singer…. stay sharp. I'll watch the front door." He nodded, turning to the door.

* * *

"You know, Bobby, if you want to sit this one out..." he began.

"Let's just get going." Bobby fired back as they went out onto the porch with guns.

Elena was following them, her heart pounding as she went over what Karen just told them before Bobby shot her. They heard footsteps and her head snapped up as Dean went to investigate. A zombie jumped out and attacked him, knocking his gun out of his hand. Elena didn't waste any time before running up and shooting it. Dean stared up with shock but she turned to see multiple zombies bearing down on Bobby and Dean. One of them threw Bobby out of his wheelchair. Elena kicked Dean's gun to him before running back to shoot all of the zombies trying to kill Bobby.

"Thanks, Elena." he said as Dean ran up the stairs and picked him up, hurrying them into the house.

She followed.

"Got any more ammo? I'm low." Dean asked.

"Yeah, we got plenty. Just run back past the zombies. It's in the van, where we left it." Bobby grumbled as Dean sat him in a chair.

"A simple no would have been fine. What are they all doing here, anyway?!" Dean said, looking back at the door that they were pounding on.

"I think I get it." Bobby sighed and Elena understood as well.

"What?" Dean asked.

He was interrupted by zombies breaking in the roof and windows. Suddenly Gabriel and Cas appeared.

"Cover your eyes, all of you." Gabriel said as they began pouring into the room.

Elena threw her hands over her eyes as Dean and Bobby did the same. A bright, humming light filled the room and Elena felt as though her body was hungrily taking it in like it was cold water on a scorching hot day.

"What the hell?" she murmured.

Suddenly her eyes flew open of their own accord and she saw that the light was pouring out of Gabriel and Castiel's bodies as the zombies screamed in pain.

"Elena!" Cas yelled, staring at her through the light.

It all ended as soon as it began and all the zombies were on the ground dead just as Sam ran in. Dean stood and looked at Gabriel and Cas.

"She is here?" he asked.

Elena stared at him, wondering why it sounded as though he already knew.

"Do you really need me to confirm that for you? I think you've known this entire time." Gabriel said.

Elena's eyes widened.

"_You're protecting him. You don't want him to know that you know."_

"_You've been in love then."_

Had he been able to sense that she was there the entire time?

"I just kept having this feeling. That I wasn't alone. That I was… protected. I figured that had to be her." Dean said.

Elena bit her lip. She had no idea that Dean would be able to tell when she was there. That made it worse. It would have been easier if he had no idea. She shook her head and turned to walk out.

"Wait. There's something we have to tell you. All of you." Gabriel said.

Bobby looked at the angels.

"We already know." Bobby said.

Gabriel stared at him with surprise before looking at Elena, who nodded.

"Karen told me and Elena why Death was here." Bobby said, looking at Sam and Dean.

"What do you mean?" Sam asked.

"I know why he took a stroll through a cemetery in the sticks of South Dakota. He came for me and he came for Elena but for two different reasons." Bobby explained.

"What do you mean, you?" Dean demanded, focusing on that part for now.

"Death came for me. He brought Karen back to send me a message."

"You? Why you?" Sam asked.

"Because I've been helping you, you sons of bitches. I'm one of the reasons you're still saying no to Lucifer, Sam." Bobby said as they watched him.

"So this was like a hit on your life?" Dean questioned.

"I don't know if they wanted to take my life or... my spirit. Either way, they wanted me out of the way." Bobby said, his eyes flashing to Gabriel and Cas.

"We didn't know that part." Cas said, glancing at Elena.

"What about Elena?" Sam asked.

She sighed and Karen's words echoed through her mind as Bobby repeated them.

"_He knows that he's going to get Sam Winchester. That's not his focus anymore. You are his priority, Elena. He is going to put every resource of his into getting you on his side. He will not give up."_

* * *

**Author's Note: Okay so I know that there wasn't much training in this chapter but I thought that this would be the perfect time to have this chapter. I can promise that the next chapter will be absolutely full of Elena/Cas/Gabriel. So much so that the Winchesters are barely going to be in the chapter (sorry). And I also promise that Lucy will make an actual appearance in the next chapter as well. And Elena will (somewhat) communicate with Dean.**

**REVIEW PLEASE!**


	18. Chapter 18

**Disclaimer: I do not own TVD or SPN**

**Thanks to RHatch89, Nyssandria, xxPaige23xx, Hollywood17, MrsMaeveSalvatoreMikaelson, slayerdiaries, LineChokor, Dark-Supernatural-Angel, diehardromantic, DrawingMyHeartOut, chiwi, and the three guests all for reviewing!**

**A few things:**

**1. Just to make sure there's no confusion, the case that Sam and Dean are on in this chapter is 'Swap Meat'. I won't be concentrating on the case as much but there are going to be mentions of it. I'm also changing the case a bit. In the episode, we didn't get to see Lucifer. But… there might be a scene (or two) of him in this chapter… maybe. If you're lucky. ;)**

**2. In advance, I apologize. I keep wanting to write an entire chapter with just Elena/Gabriel/Cas but it's really much harder than it sounds to not include the other characters. I'm sorry and I will keep trying but I like writing long chapters and I just couldn't get this one past 3000 words without including the other characters. **

**3. Just to let you know, none of the angels, demons, or Lucifer knows that Gabriel is still helping Elena. For all they know, he's still MIA. That will be important. None of them know that he slipped Elena his DNA either except Cas. That's why they're all so confused about her added powers.**

* * *

**Music:**

**Delicate - Damien Rice (dream at the end)**

* * *

Elena glared up at Gabriel as she lay on the ground.

"You're the one who wanted me to kick your ass." He shrugged as he stood over her.

"No, I wanted you to practice fighting with me. Not to throw me on the ground everytime I come at you. I'm not learning anything from you flipping me on my ass everytime." Elena grumbled, closing her eyes and concentrating on healing yet another set of bruises.

"Well you're learning to heal pretty fast." Gabriel said, grinning down at her.

Cas sighed and walked forward, holding out his hand to help her up. Elena winced as he did so, realizing that she hit her head harder than she thought.

"I appreciate this training thing and all, but you're a real ass." She sighed, leaning against the wall as she sipped at a cup of water.

They were in the barn behind Bobby's. After the few days of no contact with Dean, Sam, and Bobby, and after the new threat from Lucifer, everyone decided that it would be best for them to stick around where they were. If Sam and Dean were called on a case, Elena would go to the town that they would be in just in case they needed her. She heard the sound of the Impala starting and glanced back at the doors, biting her lip.

"Come on. No moping over your hunter boy. Training." Gabriel said, hauling her off of the wall.

Elena sighed as she got in a fighting position. As he started at her for the tenth time, she knew that he was going to pull the same crap and flip her onto her back. She ducked his arm and moved behind him, wrapping her arm around his neck. Gabriel laughed as she let him go and smiled triumphantly.

"Finally she learns." He said.

"Why are you doing hand-to-hand combat? Elena has done her fair share of fighting." Cas said.

"We can't know what our brother is going to throw at her in an attempt to get her on his side." Gabriel answered as he ducked a punch from her and countered with one of his own that she sidestepped.

"I need to be prepared for anything." She continued his statement, putting her fists up in a defensive position.

Gabriel held his hand out and her knife that she'd been leaving behind appeared in it.

"Attack me with this." he said.

"But…" she began.

"Trust me." he said.

Elena took it from him and gripped it in her hand, her entire body warming as if the presence of the knife in her hand brought it harmony. She raised it and leaned forward to attack him. The knife flew out of her hand and embedded in the wall before she could do anything.

"Hey!" she protested, turning to look at it before glaring back at Gabriel.

"You need to be prepared for anything. No one is going to fight fair against you. They aren't going to wait for you to climb off your ass when they beat you down. You can't hesitate. You go for the kill, every time." Gabriel said.

"She's not a soldier." Cas reminded him.

"She is now."

Elena walked forward to grab the knife out of the tree but the archangel stopped her.

"Stop." He said.

She looked back at him with confusion but they were interrupted from saying anything more when the doors opened and Dean and Sam walked in. Gabriel sighed, annoyed that the brothers were interrupting them. He turned back to Elena.

"Make it come to you." he said, pointing at the knife.

She cocked her head to the side.

"Gabriel, I can't even move a freaking toothpick." She said.

"You threw Zachariah across a bar… you can bring a knife to you." he said, raising an eyebrow at her.

Elena sighed and turned back, trying to ignore the fact that Sam and Dean were in there.

"What are you doing in here?" Gabriel asked.

"We got a call, an old babysitter of ours has a poltergeist over in Massachusets." Sam explained.

"Congratulations." The archangel said, smirking as he pulled out a lollipop and shoved it into his mouth.

"Stop being an ass." Elena said, concentrating on the knife.

"We're just going to head over there. I don't know how this works." Dean said gruffly, looking down at his feet.

Elena glancd over at him and saw that his eyes were slightly glazed over as he glanced up as if he could feel her eyes on him. She felt a stab of annoyance that he was drunk once again. She'd heard him yelling at Bobby to leave him alone the previous night. He was definitely getting worse. The knife flew out of the wall as her annoyance and worry built and she shrieked as it buried itself in her shoulder.

"Son of a bitch!" she cried out, stumbling backwards.

Cas immediately walked forward to help her as Dean and Sam were nonethewiser over what was happening.

"You need to get out." Gabriel said.

Elena inhaled sharply as Cas yanked the knife out in one clean swipe.

"It's okay, Gabriel." She said, closing her eyes as she put her hand over the wound and concentrated on healing it.

"You're distracting her and that's not a good thing when sharp objects are involved. Go on your hunt. We won't be far behind." Gabriel said, shooing them out.

Elena looked up at Cas.

"He's drunk again." She whispered, pulling her hand away as the wound disappeared.

Cas didn't say anything, simply handing her knife back to her with the blood all gone.

"At least you moved it." Gabriel said, walking back up to her.

"That's a small condolence." She sighed, rubbing her shoulder as she looked at the door.

"Let's get in a bit more training before we head to Massachusets or whatever." Gabriel said.

"Okay." Elena nodded, stretching out and getting ready to spar with him once more.

Every once in a while, he would jump out and Cas would jump in. They had two different fighting styles. Gabriel was very active and all over the place and more defensive but Cas was calm and very offensive. When she finally took Gabriel down, her hand around his neck and her knee on his chest, she smiled down triumphantly at him.

"I'm getting better." She said proudly.

"Yeah, but I'm going easy on you for now." He warned her.

"Ruin my moment, why don't you?" she grumbled, standing up.

"Elena this isn't a joke or anything to laugh about. This is your life and the lives of the Winchesters. Many of the things that you'll be fighting against will have been fighting for hundreds of years. You won't simply be able to rely on your strength to get through." Cas said.

"I know, Cas." She sighed, feeling exhausted as she pushed a few stray hairs out of her face.

The angel turned to Gabriel.

"She isn't going to take this seriously until you take this seriously." He warned the archangel.

Gabriel squinted at him before sighing.

"Castiel is right, Elena. We can't treat this as a joke anymore. This is important." Gabriel said.

"You think I don't realize that?" she fired back, feeling defensive.

"I don't think you fully grasp the concept, no." Cas replied.

She stared at him before shaking her head.

"Fine. What next?" she asked, pushing herself off of the wall where she was leaning.

* * *

"I can't do this!" she argued, standing in the middle of Bobby's kitchen.

They were getting ready to go to Massachusets and Cas and Gabriel were insisting that she try to do the apparation. She'd been standing in the kitchen for ten minutes trying to do such a thing.

"Try a little harder." Gabriel said from where he was sitting at the table watching her.

"Gabriel I am exhausted. We trained for six hours today. Please just let me have a little time off." she pleaded.

Cas and Gabriel exchanged a look. Bobby was sitting in the doorway with no idea what was happening.

"I know, I know. Freaking Lucifer won't give me any time off." she grumbled, closing her eyes and concentrating.

When she opened them, she was no longer in the kitchen. She was outside of the house looking up at it.

"Well it was more than ten feet this time." she sighed, watching as they opened the door.

"It was something. Let's go." Gabriel said, tromping down the stairs to join Elena with Cas following him.

"Meet you there, Cassie." The archangel said before snapping his fingers.

They appeared outside of a motel. When she looked into the office, she saw Dean and Sam checking in.

"Perfect timing." She commented.

* * *

"Did you have to get the room right next to them?" Elena asked, sitting on the chair as she held a rock in her hand.

She refused to do any more physical exercise that night so she was simply working on a mental exercise. She was trying to make the rock move out of her hand.

"Why not? It makes it easy, doesn't it?" Gabriel shrugged.

"Yeah, easy to torture me." she mumbled, concentrating on the rock.

"With all the moping you two are doing, you could be on a soap opera." He sighed.

Cas wasn't there at the moment. He was gone, continuing his search for God despite Gabriel's continued taunting over it. Elena was supportive, continuing to tell him to keep looking. If he still believed, there was no reason he shouldn't keep searching. But they could tell that he was getting close to the end of his rope. She could see the toll it was taking on him both emotionally and mentally. He would never admit it, but he was ready to break down. It didn't help that his abilities were still fading. It took him a little bit longer to heal now.

"I don't need to hear another lecture about how this is distracting me, Gabriel. I can't just turn it off, you know." She snapped.

"Well if you continue to let it plague your mind, you'll never be able to do anything. Elena a lot of this stuff we're trying to get you to do is mental. Until you stop constantly thinking about your situation with Dean, your abilities will continue to be stunted." Gabriel informed her.

"I'm not just going to pretend like I don't love him."

"I'm not asking you to stop loving him. I'm telling you that you need to find peace with your situation. It's not just you, either. You keep trying to ignore the fact that he's getting drunk every night but eventually it's going to start affecting his hunting. He's going to make mistakes and he's going to get someone killed. I used to respect Dean for one reason and one reason only. He could leave everything behind when he was hunting and that made him a damn good hunter. I'm guessing his daddy taught him that. That was all shot to hell when you got him so attached to you."

Elena stared up at him, furrowing her brow.

"So you're saying this is my fault?" she demanded.

Elena felt anger building up inside of her, somewhat at him but mostly at herself. Because he was right. It was her fault that Dean was as miserable as he was now. She looked down at the rock and frowned at it, her brow furrowing as she focused her anger on it. The rock didn't do anything but Gabriel was thrown backwards into the wall.

"Oh my… was that me?! I'm so sorry!" she said, jumping up as a loud crash sounded.

A few moments later, the door slammed open as she was helping Gabriel up off the ground.

"What the hell?" Dean said, staring at him.

"Well I just figured out the key to unlocking Elena's abilities. Get her good and pissed off." Gabriel said, not at all affected.

"I'm sorry." She said, staring at him with wide eyes.

She heard laughing and turned to see Dean actually smiling.

"Well you may want to watch out. You have the ability to piss people off down to a science." he chuckled as everyone stared at him with wonder.

It was the first time he'd smiled in a week and a half, ever since Elena was turned invisible.

"Shove it, Winchester." Gabriel snapped, brushing himself off.

Elena turned to the rock that she'd dropped and concentrated on it. Nothing happened but then she allowed an image of Lucifer to pop in her head and the rock flew right into her hand.

"Whoa." Dean and Sam said, watching as the rock sailed through the air.

"You're right. But that doesn't sound right. You don't have to be angry for it to work for you. Why am I different?" Elena said with confusion.

Gabriel looked at her.

"You have part of my grace in you, Elena. That's what I mean when I say angel DNA. Angels are soldiers. They usually only have to use their abilities when they're in battle. For all their talk, angels feel emotions more deeply than humans. And when we're in battle, what emotions do you think we're feeling? Happy? We're furious and violent. I should have thought of this before." Gabriel said.

"But when you apparate you don't have to be angry." Elena argued, leaning against the wall as Dean and Sam watched the one-sided conversation from their point of view.

"Teleportation is just a matter of practice. That's totally separate from what I'm talking about. Watch." He stood and gestured for her to get in a fighting position.

She easily ducked his blow but he shoved her against the wall much to the brothers' confusion. It was strange seeing one side of a fight with the other person being invisible.

"That was weak."

Elena opened her mouth to argue to cut him off but he backed away and shook his head to shush her.

"Now picture someone that makes you angry beyond belief. Think of that Klaus guy or Lucifer." Gabriel said.

Both of them popped in her head and she scowled angrily at the mere thought of them and what they'd done to her.

"Now…" Gabriel launched forward to attack her.

She fought off his blow and returned her own, landing it on his right cheek. He didn't wince because it didn't hurt but she felt the skin of her knuckles break. She didn't react to the pain, driving her knee into his stomach before seizing the front of his shirt and throwing him all the way across the room and through the bathroom door, breaking it off of its hinges. Elena stared with wide eyes. They all watched as he walked back through the suddenly repaired bathroom door.

"That's my girl." he said with a wink.

"Well, we'll leave Elena to kick your ass. We're going to go talk to the family with the poltergeist." Dean said.

Elena watched him leave, sadness permeating her mind again.

"Don't be sad, be angry." Gabriel reminded her. "Think of Zachariah."

The sound of shattering glass suddenly sounded from the room.

* * *

To say that Cas was shocked when he appeared in the motel room the next night was an understatement. It was completely destroyed and Elena and Gabriel were sitting in the middle of the ruins eating ice cream.

"This is the best… ever." Elena mumbled, leaning her head back on the destroyed bed with a slight smile.

She was eating plain chocolate.

"No no, you haven't tried this glorious combination." Gabriel said, holding out his own chocolate ice cream with raspberry ice cream ribboned through it.

She took it and tried it, grinning at the taste.

"You're right. That's the best." She nodded, pointing at his container.

"What happened here?" Cas asked, looking around with wide eyes.

"We fought." Elena said.

"And I figured out how to get her to really fight. You oughta see her, little brother. She's good." Gabriel nodded.

"Did no one hear this fighting? No humans have come to see what happened?" he questioned.

"I made sure that no one could hear us." The archangel shrugged.

"We kicked each other's asses and now we're eating ice cream to celebrate. Want some?" Elena asked, holding up her pint.

"I do not require sustenance." Cas repeated for the thousandth time.

"It doesn't matter if you require it, Cassie. It's fun!" Gabriel said, shrugging.

Cas just stared at them.

"You are just a buzzkill, you know that?" Gabriel said before snapping his fingers, returning the room to normal.

The ice cream wasn't gone though; they continued to eat it happily, swapping it back and forth. When they got bored with chocolate, Gabriel snapped his fingers and more appeared. Elena smirked as Castiel rolled his eyes at them. Sometimes, when Gabriel returned to his trickster attitude, it felt like Cas was the only responsible angel/part-angel in the room. Elena had far too much fun going along with Gabriel's shenanigangs mostly because it took her mind off of everything.

"Find Daddy yet?" Gabriel asked in a slightly taunting tone.

Elena threw her spoon at him.

"Leave Cas alone." She berated him as he threw it back.

"No but when I do I can't imagine that he'll be pleased that you've become… this." Cas shot back, gesturing to Gabriel as he sat in a chair.

Elena and Gabriel stared up at him appraisingly from their places on the floor.

"He's getting better at his comebacks." She nodded with a satisfied look, glancing over at Gabriel.

"I'll call our corruption of innocent little Cassie complete when I hear him call someone an asshole." Gabriel shrugged.

"Or a dick." Elena said with a giggle.

Cas glared at them as they laughed at the thought. But suddenly the smile disappeared from her face and she sat up a little straighter. Gabriel and Cas did the same thing, looking serious.

"I got this feeling…" she began.

"We did as well." they said, exchanging wary glances.

"I don't think the brothers are in trouble. That's not it." she said, trying to figure out what it was.

"No, it's not." Gabriel said.

She looked at him and then at Cas.

"What is it?" Elena asked, panicking.

"There is another angel here in town." Cas answered.

She stared between them.

"Who? Do you know?" she asked.

"It's too powerful to be a lower level angel. It has to be an archangel." Gabriel said.

"Raphael has been recalled to heaven by Michael. They aren't coming down to earth until…" Cas glanced over at Elena.

"Until Dean says yes?" she questioned.

They nodded.

"So that leaves…" she trailed off, realizing what it meant.

"Lucifer." They said at the same time.

Elena jumped up and turned to walk out the door.

"We need to get Sam and Dean out of here, now." Elena said.

"Down girl…" Gabriel began, standing up as well.

"They can't be anywhere near him, Gabriel." Elena said, turning to stare at him.

"She is right." Cas said.

He looked between them before nodding.

"Fine. Come on." Gabriel said, turning to walk out the door.

Sam and Dean should have been back at the motel by then. But when they walked into their room, they found it completely deserted, weapons and everything were gone.

"What the…" Elena said, running into the bathroom to find that their toothbrushes weren't even there?

"Where are they?" she demanded as she ran out.

"We know about as much as you, sweetheart." Gabriel said.

Cas pulled out his phone and dialed Dean's number. They listened as it rang and rang, the voicemail eventually coming up.

"Try calling Sam." Elena said.

He did and got the voicemail on his phone as well. Elena reached out and took the phone, dialing every single one of Dean's backup phones as she walked out the door. She heard ringing and looked around with wide eyes. When she figured out where it was coming from, she ran to the dumpster and found one of the phone sitting on the ground. The rest were in the dumpster.

"Something is really, really wrong." Elena said, holding the phone up.

"If Lucifer has them…" Cas began.

"We'd feel it. Elena would feel it. Her Winchester alarm would go off." Gabriel asked.

"But…" Elena began.

"If Lucifer took control of his true vessel, we would all feel the shift in power."

They sighed and looked around.

"How the hell do we find Dean and Sam? They've got his Enochian ribs thing so you two can't find them. I guess I can follow my instincts but will that still work since I got the upgrade when I went to heaven?" Elena asked.

"Just… try." Gabriel shrugged.

* * *

Elena approached the bar that she sensed Dean was inside slowly. She didn't sense Sam, which wasn't a big deal on any other day because Dean always went to bars alone lately. But right now, it was strange since they'd disappeared without a word and Dean didn't let her know. She turned to look at Gabriel and Cas, who shrugged. She sighed and walked in when someone else opened the door, aware that no one would see her. She took special care not to bump into anyone so that they wouldn't freak out. She immediately caught sight of Dean and sighed with relief at seeing that he was all right. He was sitting a table drinking a beer and eating a burger.

Then she caught sight of another plate on the table and another bottle of beer. The plate had a burger on it, which was weird. If it was Sam that was with Dean, he never ate burgers. He always got salads when they went out. But who else would be with him.

"Hey." A familiar voice said.

She turned with surprise to see Sam standing there.

"You've got your eyes on my… brother. He's a good guy. Could really use a woman to cheer him up. I think he's a bit down." Sam said, smiling at her.

Elena stared at him with wide eyes before squinting as it suddenly occurred to her what was happening. This was why she couldn't sense him and most likely why he could see her. This was not Sam.

"I'd rather have you." she said bluntly, posting a fake seductive smile on her face.

He smiled nervously and gulped.

"Oh… okay." He said, nodding.

Elena reached out and took his hand, smiling as she led him out.

"I should tell my brother." he said, turning his head.

"He'll get over it." Elena said, nodding subtly at Gabriel to go talk to Dean.

When they were outside in an alleyway, Elena grasped the front of his shirt and threw him against the wall.

"Whoa, you like it rough then." He said, smiling at her like an awkward teenage boy.

Elena stared up at him with her head cocked to the side before she pulled her knife that was hidden in her unbuttoned black trenchcoat. She pressed it up against his throat as she held him against the wall with her arm across his chest. She was up on her tiptoes but she didn't care because she was stronger than him.

"What the hell?" he demanded, struggling against her tight grip as three people ran up.

She turned her head to see Dean, Gabriel, and Cas there.

"Dean help, this chick is trying to kill me." the person said, panicking.

Elena rolled her eyes and pressed him further into the wall.

"Dean can't see me, you idiot. If you bothered to do your research about the Winchesters before you took over one of their bodies, you would know that they have a guardian, me. And through a series of unforunate events, I'm invisible to anyone except for those that are putting my boys in danger. That would be you. So basically you not only made a big mistake in taking over Sam's body, but you also just unwittingly informed us that you are a threat to both him and Dean." Elena explained to him.

He stared at her with wide eyes.

"What?" he said, terrified.

"What is your name?" Dean demanded, pissed off that someone took over his brother's body.

"G-Gary." He stammered, staring at them with wide eyes.

Dean stared at him for a second.

"Fast food guy?" he said.

* * *

They all stared at him as he was tied in a chair in the middle of the room.

"Start talking." Dean said.

Elena was perched on a desk and staring at him. Gary just stared at them. It was a little freaky since he was using Sam's face but they could obviously tell that it wasn't Sam.

"Start talking or she'll kick your ass." Gabriel said, gesturing to Elena who was still holding her knife.

She smiled at Gary.

"You… you won't. This is Sam's body. You won't damage it?" Gary said in a higher pitched voice.

"Oh honey, I can heal that body right up when Sam gets back in it. So start talking." Elena said casually.

They were putting on an act. Gary was a teenage boy and they weren't going to beat up a teenage boy whether he was in Sam's body or not. But he didn't know that.

"I know how to do some magic." the kid said.

"No kidding." Dean scoffed.

"A few days ago, my friends and I were messing around and I said some words in Latin. Suddenly there was this… presence… in my body. It made me draw a picture. It made me draw you." Gary said, gesturing to Dean.

"Me?" Dean said.

"There's a bounty out on you." he said.

Elena stared at him, anger rising up in her. She suddenly understood his entire plan. He was going to take over Sam's body and lead Dean to the devil, literally. The chair suddenly flew backwards and slammed into the wall. Cas looked over at Elena while Dean stared at Gary with wide eyes and Gabriel smirked triumphantly.

"Like I said, when she's angry…" he trailed off, gesturing to Gary, who was freaking out.

"Where is Sam?" she demanded.

"I don't know. He's in my body but other than that…"

She got up, crossing the room to kneel in front of him.

"Gary, let me give you some advice." She whispered in a low voice.

"Before we were lying. We weren't going to beat you up. But then you told me that you were going to kill Dean. Now, I have no qualms about kicking your ass into next week. So if you know where Sam is…" she lifted the dagger to show him. "… you might want to tell me."

Gary stared at her with wide eyes, probably thinking that she was crazy.

"He's at my friend Trevor's house. His parents are out of town."

"And what is your friend, Trevor, doing?" Elena asked.

Gary mumbled something.

"What was that?" she asked, standing up.

"Summoning a demon." He said in a quiet voice.

Elena took a deep breath, attempting to calm herself.

"What is your friend's address?"

When he answered her, she turned to Gabriel and Cas.

"I'll stay here with the kid. You go get Sammy." Dean said.

They nodded and Elena took their hands before they disappeared. They reappeared in the living room of a home.

"This is it." Gabriel said.

They heard a strangled scream from the basement. When they ran down, they found one body on the ground, a girl standing in the middle of room with blood on her hands, and a kid tied to a chair. The girl looked up at them and rolled her eyes, stepping back.

"And how did I know that you angels would be showing up?" she said with a roll of her eyes, slamming her bleeding hand onto a sigil on the wall.

"No!" Elena yelled as Gabriel and Cas disappeared.

She looked back to see the demon's eyes flashing black.

"And you must be Elena. You're a little underwhelming, I must say." The demon said, smirking.

Elena glared at her as she stomped down the stairs. She squinted and threw the demon back into the wall. The demon jumped up and glared at him.

"You're too late. My father already knows that they're here. He's in town waiting on me to give him the signal of where to come." The demon said, inching towards the kid who she assumed to be Gary's body with Sam in it.

Elena ran forward, withdrawing her knife and whipping it across the demon's arm, causing her to cry out and stumble backwards as the wound smoked and crackled.

"What the hell?" she growled, glaring at Elena.

"Angelic weapon." Elena said, waving it in her face.

"You can keep Sam. I don't need him. Her friend has Dean and Sam's meatsuit. That's all I need." The demon smirked before disappearing.

"Dammit!" Elena said, panicking.

She turned and ran to Sam's bind, really wishing that Sam could see her.

"Elena… we don't have time to drive." Sam said.

"I know." She mumbled, wishing even more that Gabriel or Cas could be there but they were banished to God knows where.

"Can you… apparate yet?" Sam asked, knowing that it was hopeless to ask her considering that she couldn't answer.

She sighed as she got him undone and he stood, staring around as if he expected something to happen.

"No, I can't." she said miserably, wondering what the hell she could do.

"Elena… I know that you are probably freaking out but take a deep breath, okay?" Elena did as he said, inhaling deeply.

"You can do this. You are really powerful. I mean you threw a damn archangel through a door, okay? So just… concentrate. Try. You have gotten past so many barriers. You lost your memories and you still managed to come back to us all on your own. So I believe that you can do this. I don't have faith in a lot of things, Elena. Not anymore. But I have faith in you." Sam said.

She bit back her tears. In all her depression about Dean, she hadn't realized just how much she missed Sam too. She needed him too and, from what he was saying, it seemed that he needed her as much or more. She reached out and touched his shoulder, closing her eyes and concentrating.

"Come on." she mumbled, squeezing her eyes shut and hoping that it would work more than anything.

"Please… come on." she whimpered.

"You can do this, Elena." he said again.

She took a deep breath and nodded. Suddenly she got the rushing feeling and her eyes popped open to see the demon standing over Dean in the motel room as Gary in Sam's body was backing into a wall. There was another body in the room, a dead one with its throat slashed. A bowl of blood sat beside it and Elena knew that the demon had called Lucifer. They didn't have much time. She ran forward and flicked her hand, not bothering to dwell on the fact that she'd just succeeded in transporting them all the way across the town. The demon flew across the room and crashed into the wall. Dean stood up slowly, staggering to his feet. Gary began to recite something in Latin and Elena knew that he was trying to exorcise the demon.

"Don't bother." She said, pulling out her knife and starting forward.

Elena shoved her against the wall with her hand wrapped around her throat.

"No! Nora!" Gary protested and Elena knew that the girl must have been his friend.

"He's coming." The demon said, laughing at Elena.

"He's going to kill your precious Dean and take Sam's body and then it's all going to be over." The demon taunted.

"Not on my watch." Elena said before driving the blade into her heart.

The demon flashed gold and choked on her own blood as her life drained. Elena ripped the blade out as the body dropped to the floor.

"No!" Gary yelled, panicked.

Elena looked back at him.

"This is what happens when you mess with things that you shouldn't mess with. Remember that in the future." She said before bending down and touching Nora.

She closed her eyes and let the warmth flood into her body, healing and reviving her. Nora gasped and sat up. Elena stopped Gary from running to her.

"You have something to fix, first. And I have a devil to confront." Elena said.

* * *

Lucifer walked up to the motel, not bothering a second glance to the people who were staring at his blistered face with shocked looks. There was also the matter of the blood on his clothing but that didn't faze him at all. But it certainly did scare the humans. It was a pathetic lot, wasn't it? He smirked when he sensed the guardian's presence in the motel. That was all that mattered. Of course, when he found the demon, he would punish it for letting Sam Winchester slip out of her hands. But that would be another day. The door clicked open and he walked in to find the room empty except for a dead body with a slit throat and Elena who was sitting on the desk obviously waiting for him.

"I think you and I need to talk." She said.

* * *

Dean sat there watching with Nora as Gary did the spell to switch their bodies back. They had driven over to Elena's motel room. There was a flash of light and Sam jumped up, running to the mirror in the motel room and sighing with relief.

"So, we good?" Dean asked, standing up.

"Yeah. We're good." Sam said, turning back to him. "Oh, man, it's nice to be back."

"Yeah. Awesome." Gary said sarcastically, standing as well.

He turned to see Dean right in his face.

"So…" the hunter cleared his throat.

"I know… my bad." Gary said shamefully, hanging his head as he admitted that he was in way over his head.

"My bad?" Dean said in a disbelieving voice. "Kid, my bad ain't gonna cut it. See, if you were of voting age, you'd be dead. Because we would kill you."

Gary looked over at Sam with wide eyes. The other Winchester just nodded, backing up his brother.

"So either you straighten up and fly right or we will kill you. Are we clear?" Dean asked, holding his gun up to illustrate his point.

"Crystal." Gary nodded, gulping.

"Good." Dean said.

* * *

"I can't say I'm not surprised to see you here, Elena. You've been so under wraps ever since our last confrontation." Lucifer said, walking further into the room.

"With good reason. You've been stalking me." she fired back, swinging her legs childishly as she sat on the desk.

"I wouldn't call it stalking as much as passionately pursuing." He shrugged.

Elena let out a humorless chuckle, crossing her legs and leaning back.

"You make it sound like a romance novel." She said.

He looked at her.

"You are different. So much more powerful than you were when we last met." He acknowledged.

"What can I say? I got an upgrade." Elena replied.

Lucifer nodded, looking intrigued

"So why did you stick around? I'm surprised your friends didn't drag you off." he said.

"They can't. I'm invisible, or haven't you heard?" Elena asked.

"Oh yes, that's truly tragic. You know… I could fix that." he offered.

She smirked, nodding.

"I was waiting for you to try to make a deal with me. But you see that's going to work out about as well as it's worked for you in the past. Because I've only discovered that there's a hell-bounty out for Dean's head. And that's about the worst thing that you could have done." Elena said.

Lucifer stared at her.

"Well what was I supposed to do? I did it for the same reason that I sent Death to Sioux Falls. There are only a few things keeping Sam from saying yes to me. Get rid of those and I'll have him locked up. Why do you think I'm pursuing you so relentlessly? It would be a shame to kill you. You are far too powerful for that and it would please me to see a project of my brothers backfire on them so destructively. I also know that if you're on my side, it would most likely convince Sam to say yes to me." he explained.

"Hmm… not a bad plan. Too bad it'll never happen." Elena shrugged.

His eyes narrowed at her.

"I am warning you, Elena. If you continue to get in the way of me taking my true vessel, I won't hesitate to kill you. There is only so far I am willing to go to get you on my side. At some point, you become a bother. And things that bother me don't tend to last long." He cautioned her.

Elena stared at him, her face remaining emotionless. He watched as she pulled something silver out of her pocket. He realized too late what it was when she flicked the lighter and tossed it onto the ground. He backed away but the flames lit up around him. He glared at her through the flickering orange light. She slid off of the desk and walked up to the flames.

"For being some of the strongest beings ever to exist, you archangels are awfully easy to lure into one of these traps." She said, gesturing to the flames.

Her eyes flickered up to him as she tilted her head to the side. Lucifer could have sworn that he saw a flicker of electric blue in her eyes. The sign of an angel's grace. But that confused him.

"You are truly like no other guardian. What are you?" he breathed.

Elena stared at him. He almost sounded like he was in awe of her. But that couldn't be. He was disgusted by humans and she was still at least part human. She ignored that question, narrowing her eyes at him.

"I am warning you, Lucifer. Stop coming after me. Stop coming after Dean. You are doomed to be disappointed at every turn. If the bounties on Bobby and Dean's heads don't disappear, I'm going to be forced to go through drastic measures that ensure that you'll never see Sam again. Then I will come to you and I will shove an angel-killing blade through your heart." She threatened before lifting her hand.

He glared at her through the flames. She winked at him and snapped her fingers in a very Gabriel-esque way before disappearing from the spot.

When she reappeared at the motel, Sam and Dean were there along with Gabriel and Cas. Gary and Nora were nowhere to be seen so she assumed that they'd taken care of it. The two angels were staring at her with amazed expressions.

"Hey guys. So I can sort of apparate now." She said with a grin.

They both looked impressed.

* * *

It was later that night and Elena was still in the room. Cas and Gabriel were long gone but she elected to remain behind. She knew that the boys knew that she was there but none of them said anything about it. Dean was sitting on the bed drinking and Sam was fast asleep. She was sitting in the chair by the table watching them.

"I know you're here." He mumbled, looking down at the almost empty bottle of whiskey.

She stared at him, chewing on her lower lip.

"I can't decide which is worse. When I can feel you here and I can't see you… or when I can't feel you at all and I know you're not here." He rambled drunkenly.

Elena sighed, looking down at her hands.

"I miss you." he admitted.

He looked up into the room and then placed the bottle of whiskey on the bedside table.

"I love you." was the last thing he said before he laid down and drifted off to sleep.

Elena walked to the bed as his breathing evened out and she was certain that he was deep in his sleep. There was other training that she'd been doing. Gabriel had rolled his eyes and ranted about her being distracted from the important things but she'd practically pleaded with him to help her figure it out and he relented. It was much easier than anything else because it only required use of her mind. He told her that it would be easiest to do with Dean because they had such a more solid connection. Elena leaned over him and placed her hand on his forehead, closing her eyes.

* * *

When her eyes opened, they were lying on a soft bed and their hands were entertwined.

"Elena?" Dean said, looking over at her with wide eyes.

He was in a pair of flannel pajama pants and she was in a white t-shirt of his with a white pair of cotton underwear.

"Hi, Dean." She said softly, her hair falling over her eyes as she turned to look at him.

Dean reached over and pushed it out of her face, his thumb stroking her cheek softly.

"This isn't real." He murmured.

She sighed and her eyes fell.

"No, it's a dream. Gabriel taught me how…" she was cut off by his finger on her lips.

Her eyes raised and she saw his green eyes shining with tears.

"I don't care. It's you." he whispered.

She smiled and pulled his hand away, grasping it in hers.

"I love you too, Dean." She said, answering his last conscious thought before he fell asleep.

He sighed and put his hand on her chin, pulling her up to press his lips to her softly. When he pulled away, they simply stared at each other.

"So this dream… can you do anything?" he asked, looking around at the unfamiliar room.

"Pretty much, yeah. I mean, I'm still developing it so it'll get better the more I do it." Elena explained, turning to look as well.

"I like it here. It's peaceful." He said.

"It is." She agreed, nuzzling into his body with her head on his chest.

One hand stroked her hair while the other wrapped around her shoulders.

"Are you sleeping too?" he asked.

She smiled at the question.

"No, uh. Whatever happened to me when Zachariah took me to heaven, it changed me a lot. I don't sleep anymore." she admitted.

"At all?" Dean asked, making her look up at him.

"Does that bother you?" she questioned.

He shrugged.

"I mean it's a little creep but…" he trailed off.

She laughed and slapped his arm.

"Shut it." Elena snapped, returning to cuddling against his side, their legs tangled together.

Her hand began to stroke up and down his torso.

"I missed your laugh." he said.

"I missed your everything." She replied.

They laid there, in a contented silence, as they just enjoyed each other's company. For some reason, neither of them were desperate to kiss or even to have dream sex. They knew that they would be seeing each other again now. There was an unspoken understanding that this dream thing was going to be a regular occurrence. After a long time, they suddenly felt another presence in the room. They sat up slowly and looked in the corner to see someone step out of the shadows.

"Elena. Dean." She said, her red hair clashing with the brightness of the room.

"Why are you gate-crashing my head?" Dean demanded, staring at her.

"I could ask Elena the same thing, though I already know the answer. You've grown powerful." Anna said, sitting on the edge of the bed and facing them.

They just stared at her.

"I can't find you." Anna said.

"Oh. Cas did this thing." Dean said, indicating their ribs.

Anna stared at them, sighing before looking away.

"Cas. Right. Now, there's a friend you can count on." she said, looking down.

"What do you mean?" Elena asked.

"He didn't tell you?" the angel asked, staring at them.

"Tell me what?" Dean asked.

"Where I've been. Where he sent me." They stared at her, shrugging. "Of course not. Why would he?"

"Where have you been?" Elena asked.

"Prison. Upstairs. All the torture, twice the self-righteousness." Anna explained.

"Why wouldn't he have told us where you were?" Dean questioned.

Anna's eyes flashed to Elena.

"Because he's the one who turned me in." she said, telling Elena what she already knew while Dean looked surprised.

"Don't look so shocked. He was always a good little soldier. Did anything under orders." She said.

"I didn't know. Are you okay?" Dean asked, concerned.

"No. And I don't have long. I broke out. Barely. They're looking for me. If they find me…" Anna trailed off.

"Okay. What do you need?" Elena asked, feeling bad for the angel.

"Meet me. 225 Industrial. And, please, just hurry." She pleaded before disappearing.

Elena and Dean looked at each other warily.

* * *

**Author's Note: I hope you liked it. Review please!**

**PLEASE READ THIS IS IMPORTANT:**

**If anyone is wondering why I haven't updated 'Renegade', there is a reason for that. I really don't like how I started it. I didn't plan on writing Dean like I did. I wanted him to be more of a… renegade. I know that sounds cheesy. But it's true. I wrote him more romantic than I meant to and that's not at all how I originally wanted to write him. So I am currently rewriting it. I would rather do it now than decide that I hate it later and trash the whole thing. So please be patient with me.**


	19. Chapter 19

**Disclaimer: I do not own TVD or Supernatural**

**Thanks to Dark Alana, RHatch89, xxPaige23xx, Dark Supernatural-Angel, Nyssandria, LineChokor, chiwi, Hollywood17, diehardromantic, MrsMaeveSalvatoreMikaelson, MelissaIsLame, slayerdiaries, and the guest for reviewing!**

**To Dark-Supernatural-Angel, there will be an entire chapter where Elena will meet quite a few people from both her and the Winchesters' pasts. So her parents might be included in that.**

**Elena's outfit is on my profile. One outfit for the whole chapter.**

* * *

Elena withdrew from Dean's mind and almost immediately ran outside, dialing the number on her phone quickly.

"Cas I need you." she said into the phone.

She heard the fluttering of wings and sighed with relief, turning to see Cas standing there still holding the phone to his ear.

"What is it?" he asked, walking forward as he turned the call off.

"I was just doing the psychic thing with Dean and Anna showed up." She said quickly, shoving her phone into her pocket.

"Anna?" he confirmed, his brow furrowing.

She nodded, swallowing hard. She looked into the motel room door that was still open to see Dean sitting up and looking around confusedly. Elena hadn't really given him an explanation before she disappeared from his mind. She took Cas' hand and dragged him into the motel room.

"She wants them to meet with her." She said.

"Why?" Cas said.

"Why didn't you tell us that you had Anna taken to heaven?" Dean demanded, standing.

Sam jerked awake among the raised voices.

"It was not of import at the time. You cannot go meet with her." Cas said.

"Why not?" Dean asked.

"What's going on?" Sam asked sleepily.

"The only way that Anna would leave heaven is if they let her go." the angel said.

"That's what I thought." Elena sighed, glad that she was right.

While she felt horrible for Anna that she had to endure months of torture that probably felt like years to her, it was too suspicious. Elena hadn't been guarded and it wasn't all that easy for her to get out of heaven. Angels probably surrounded Anna so how would she have possible escaped?

"But she said she escaped." Dean argued.

Cas and Elena shared a wary look.

"I think that she was lying." Cas said, voicing Elena's thoughts.

"And why should I trust you? You're the one that gave her over to heaven."

Cas looked as though he was about to start yelling curses at Dean's words.

"Tell him to trust me." Elena said.

* * *

Elena and Castiel entered the dark warehouse silently, their pace the exact same as they walked forward. They found Anna in a dark room, just a few lightbulbs shining overhead. Her back was facing them and she heard them coming before she saw them there. She was still wearing the same clothing that Elena had always seen her in.

"Hello? Who's there?" she asked, turning.

They walked forward and their faces were revealed in the dim light.

"Hello, Anna." Cas said gruffly.

"Well. If I didn't know any better..." she said, her eyes flashing from Cas to Elena. "I'd say the Winchesters don't trust me."

"They do. I don't. I wouldn't let them come." Cas said, circling Anna as she turned to keep facing him.

"And Elena? Is she your guardian now too?" she asked.

"No, but she wouldn't let me come alone."

"And why is that?" Anna asked, tilting her head as Cas came to a stop.

"If you're out of prison, it's because they let you out." he guessed.

Anna's eyes flashed but she didn't say anything.

"They sent you here to do their dirty work." Elena said, stepping forward to stand beside Cas.

She let out a sigh.

"And what makes you so sure?" she asked.

"Because I've experienced... heaven's persuasion." Cas said.

"You mean when you gave me to them." Anna said harshly, glaring at him.

"That was a mistake." He said, sounding ashamed.

There was a thick pause as they all appraised each other.

"Anna, whatever they sent you here to do…" Cas began.

"They didn't send me. I escaped." Anna interrupted him.

"No one escapes." Cas shot back with certainly.

"All these centuries, and you're underestimating me now?" she questioned, smiling sadly.

"If you're not one of them, then what do you want?" Elena asked, automatically using the 'us against them' vernacular that had become a familiar part of their vocabulary.

"I want to help." Anna explained.

They stared at her for a moment.

"You want to help?" Cas asked carefully.

"Yes." She said, nodding.

"Then what are doing with that knife?" he asked.

There was a long few moments of silence before Anna drew a knife out. Elena's eyes flickered to her boot where her own knife was stuck in an ankle holster. It wouldn't kill her but it would be better than nothing.

"I'm not allowed to defend myself?" Anna asked.

"Against whom? That blade doesn't work against angels. It's not like this one." Cas said, a blade sliding out of his trenchcoat sleeve.

Elena fought back a smile. As clueless and innocent-like Castiel was when it came to human stuff, he was a pretty badass angel in Elena's opinion.

"Maybe you're not working for Heaven. But there's something you're not telling me." he said, gripping the angel blade tightly.

Anna looked as though she was steeling herself as she stared between them.

"Sam Winchester has to die." She said.

Elena bent down, screwing it all as she pulled her own knife out. Anna's eyes followed her.

"I'm sorry but we have no choice." The redhead said to Elena. "He's Lucifer's vessel."

Elena simply glared at her. Before, she would have been willing to give Anna the benefit of the doubt. Especially after seeing Lucifer's fake future in her mind. Apparently even he was nicer to Anna than she deserved.

"He's not the only one." Cas said.

"What, that guy Nick? He's burning away as we speak. No." She said, shaking her head. "Sam is the only vessel that matters. You know what that means? If Lucifer can't take Sam, his whole plan short-circuits. No fight with Michael, no Croatoan virus. The Horsemen go back to their day jobs."

"Even if you could... kill Sam, Satan would just bring him back to life." Cas informed her.

"Not after I scatter his cells across the universe." Anna replied, having thought everything through.

Castiel turned away from her as Elena gripped her dagger tightly and stared at Anna with piercing and furious eyes.

"They'll never find him. Not all of him." the female angel said.

"We'll find another way." Elena said, trying to reign in her anger so that she didn't accidentally throw Anna threw the large glass window that was behind her.

"How's that going?" Anna asked, tilting her head to the side as she glanced at Elena. "How's the Colt working out? Or the search for God? Is anything working? If you want to stop the devil, this is how."

"The answer's still no. Because Sam is my friend." Cas said with an air of finality, staring at the wall intently as if it would tell him how to deal with this.

Anna stared at him for a moment.

"You've changed." She acknowledged, sounding surprised.

"Maybe too late, but I have." He sighed, turning back to her. "Anna, we've been through much together, but you come near Sam Winchester and I'll kill you."

Elena felt the corner of her mouth twitch at his declaration of loyalty not to God or to his fellow angels, but to the Winchesters. Badass angel indeed. Anna lifted her chin as she heard this before she disappeared. They turned to face each other, an unspoken agreement passing between them. They knew that Anna wasn't going to give up.

* * *

Elena stood in the corner as Castiel began to do the spell to find out where Anna went. Sam was sitting on the far bed and Dean was pacing unhappily.

"Really? Anna? I don't believe it." he said.

Elena scoffed quietly and Cas glanced back at her.

"It's true." He said, turning back to the table that he was working the spell out on.

"So she's gone all Glenn Close, huh? That's awesome." Dean sighed, dragging his hands down his face.

Castiel straightened up, staring at him with a confused look.

"Who's Glenn Close?" he asked.

"No one, just this psycho bitch who likes to boil rabbits." Dean waved off, stopping and turning to look at Cas.

"So the plan to kill me, would it actually stop Satan?" Sam questioned, looking up at the angel.

Elena shook her head frustratedly. What was with these Winchesters and their constant need to sacrifice themselves? But then again, she couldn't really speak, could she?"

"No, Sam, come on." Dean scoffed, shaking his head.

Sam glanced between Dean and Cas.

"Cas, what do you think? Does Anna have a point?" he asked.

Dean gave Castiel a pointed look as he glanced at him then at Sam with uncertainty.

"No. She's, uh, Glenn Close." He said unconvincingly.

Sam looked down as Dean walked back over to the angel.

"I don't get it. We're looking for the chick that wants to gank Sam." he said, trying to understand why they were doing such a thing. "Why poke the bear?"

"Anna will keep trying. She won't give up until Sam is dead." Castiel glanced over at Elena, who gave him a sympathetic look. "So we kill her first." He sighed.

Dean and Sam stared at him as he poured oil into a bowl on the table and began chanting.

"Zod ah ma ra la ee est la gi ro sa." Suddenly the bowl shot red flame and Cas staggered away from the table.

Elena darted forward and caught him, bringing him forward to lean onto the back of a chair. His eyes were closed as he was breathing heavily. Sam and Dean looked worried as Sam stood up slowly. Cas looked up, realization in his eyes as he glanced over at them.

"I've found her." he announced.

"Where is she?" Dean asked.

"Not where. When." Cas sighed, straightening up and nodding at Elena that he was all right.

She wasn't so sure. He seemed too weakened by this already.

"It's 1978."

"What?" Sam said, his brow furrowing. "Why 1978? I wasn't even born yet."

"You won't be if she kills your parents." Cas said.

Elena's hands gripped into fists. Anna was getting closer and closer to becoming enemy #1.

"What?" Sam breathed.

Cas walked up to them.

"Anna can't get to you because of me. So she's going after them." He informed them.

"Take us back right now." Dean said instantly.

"And deliver you right to Anna? I should go alone. Or at least just with Elena." the angel replied.

"They're our parents. Cas, we're going." Dean said, shaking his head.

"It's not that easy." He sighed, looking back at Elena.

"Why not?" Sam and Elena asked at the same time.

"Time travel was difficult even with the powers of heaven at my disposal."

"Which got cut off." the younger Winchester nodded.

"So, what, you're like a Delorean without enough plutonium?" Dean asked as Cas turned back around to face them.

"I don't understand that reference." Cas sighed as he'd explained his lack of understanding of Dean's random pop culture references a million times.

He was almost as exasperated by that as he was by Elena and Gabriel's combined insistance on being immature sometimes.

"But I'm telling you, taking this trip, with passengers no less…" Cas shook his head. "… it'll weaken me."

Dean walked up to stand directly in front of him.

"They're our mom and dad. If we can save them, and not just from Anna... I mean if we can set things right, we have to try." He said, a hint of pleading in his voice.

"You can pull strength from me, right?" Elena asked.

He turned to look at her.

"There's no use in weakening you as well." he said, shaking his head.

Thirty minutes later, they were watching as Cas packed two ceramic holy oil jars as well as his angel-killing blade. He turned to face Sam, Dean, and Elena.

"Ready?" he asked.

Sam grabbed the bag from him, swinging it over his shoulder.

"Not really." He admitted.

"Bend your knees." Dean warned him.

Elena reached out and touched Cas' shoulder as he reached out and touched the brothers' foreheads with his fingers.

* * *

She ended up on the sidewalk. When she looked up, she saw Sam and Dean in the middle of the road dodging cars. She looked around to see Cas huddled against a car.

"Cas?" she called, running to him.

"Did we make it?" she heard Sam ask.

"Unless they're bringing Pintos back into production, I, uh, I'd say yes." Dean confirmed as they walked onto the sidewalk.

Just as she squatted beside Cas, they noticed him and ran to him as well. His nose was bleeding.

"Cas?" Sam said as they hurried over.

"Hey." Dean said, catching him as he keeled over.

"Hey, hey, hey." Sam said, pulling him back up to a sitting position as Elena was with worry.

"Take it easy. Take it easy. Are you all right?" Dean asked, looking at his paler-than-normal face.

He inhaled sharply.

"I'm fine. I'm much better than I expected." The angel nodded.

Sam and Dean tried to help him up but he ended up spitting up blood much to Elena's panic. He passed out as Dean caught him once again. Sam reached over and put his hand in front of his mouth.

"He's breathing. Sort of. What do we do?" he asked.

* * *

As they helped him into the motel room that Dean purchased, Cas' eyes barely opened a little.

"Cas?" Elena said, hovering over him as he laid on the bed.

"You have… to go with them." He said weakly, staring up at her.

Dean and Sam looked at him but remained silent as they knew he was talking to Elena.

"But I can help you." she argued.

"Anna will kill them if she gets them alone. They need you. Go. Take the bag." he instructed before he slipped into unconsciousness again.

Elena sighed and shook her head. She really wanted to stay with Cas and make sure that he was all right but she knew that she needed to go with the brothers.

* * *

"I mean, the mustaches alone..." Sam said with a grin as Dean walked out of the motel.

Elena followed him, well aware that no one could see her. That fact alone made it all right for her to glare around at everyone. She was in a particularly foul mood. If Gabriel was there, he could easily tell her what to do. But since he wasn't, she felt almost completely helpless in this situation.

"So I paid for Cas for five nights up in the, uh, honeymoon suite. I told the manager, Do not disturb no matter what. You know what he said to me? Yeah. Don't sweat it. Want to buy some dope?" Dean informed Sam, shaking his head.

Sam snorted and shook his head as well.

"Dope." Dean chuckled. "We ought to stick around here, buy some stock in Microsoft."

"Yeah, we might have to if Cas doesn't recover. Is he all right?" Sam questioned.

"What do I look like… Dr. Angel, Medicine Woman? He'll wake up. He's, you know, tough for a little nerdy dude with wings." Dean shrugged.

"If he landed like that, hopefully, so did Anna. Should buy us some time." Sam said.

"So, did you find 'em?" Dean asked, looking at the paper from the phone book in his hand.

"Yeah. Uh, the Winchesters. Four-eight-five Robintree." He said, holding it up.

"Let's go pop in on the folks." Dean sighed.

Elena followed them across the street as they scoped out a car to steal.

"You with us, Lena?" Dean asked as he looked around.

She responded by lifting a rock with her mind and causing it to hit him in the chest.

"All right, good response." He nodded, opening the backseat of the light blue car to let her in.

* * *

They parked across the street from Mary and John's house. It was dark outside and Sam and Dean got out, Dean opening the door for her once again. But he ended up standing there, unsure of whether she was all the way out of the door. Elena rolled her eyes and slammed it shut with her mind, surprising him.

"How is it that you manage to be snarky when I can't even hear or see you?" he grumbled, following Sam across the street.

"It's a particular talent of mine." She replied dryly, knowing he couldn't hear her.

"Sam. Sam. Wait, wait, wait, wait." Dean said, suddenly realizing something.

Sam stopped and turned to look at him with wide eyes.

"Dean, Anna could be here any second." He said, gesturing to the house.

"What exactly are we gonna march up there and tell 'em?" Dean said, ignoring his warning.

Elena stood there watching them as they spoke, deciding that she was officially done with not being able to communicate with them without the angels. The sooner someone shoved an angel-blade in Zachariah, the better for her.

"Uh, the truth." Sam said, unsure of what else they could say.

"What, that their sons are back from the future to save them from an angel? Gone Terminator? Come on. Those movies haven't even come out yet." Dean scoffed.

"Well, then tell her demons are after 'em. I mean, she thinks you're a hunter, right?" Sam confirmed.

"Yeah, a hunter who disappeared right when her dad died. She's gonna love me." Dean said, looking up at the house with his arms crossed.

He sighed as he thought about it for a moment.

"Just follow my lead." He said before heading past Sam up to the house.

Sam shook his head and followed him. Elena trailed, her arms crossed over her chest. Once they got to the door, Dean rang the doorbell.

"Hi, Mary." Dean said once the blonde opened it.

She barely looked different from the last time they saw her, just a little bit older. Her welcoming smile fell as she recognized him.

"You can't be here." She breathed.

"I'm sorry if this is a bad time." he said sympathetically.

"You don't understand. I'm not…" she said in a hushed voice, her eyes glancing over at Sam, who was staring at her with a shocked face. "I don't do that anymore. I have a normal life now. You have to go."

She shook her head as she moved to close the door. Dean held out an arm to stop her.

"I'm sorry, but this is important, okay?" he tried to appeal to her.

They heard someone clear their throat and the door opened wider to reveal John looking at them expectantly, waiting for them to explain why they were on his doorstep.

"Sorry, sweetie, they're just..." Mary trailed off, glancing at them.

"… Mary's cousins." Dean finished, smiling.

She smiled awkwardly, trying not to give anything away as John nodded, realizing the situation.

"Yeah, we couldn't stop through town without swinging by and saying hey, now, could we?" Dean said with a happy grin.

He held out a hand for John to shake.

"Dean." He introduced himself as John took it.

"You look familiar." He said, shaking his hand.

"Really? Yeah, you do, too, actually, you know? We must have met sometime. Small towns, right? Got to love 'em." Dean said, shrugging.

John nodded and turned to Sam.

"I'm John." He said, holding his hand out for him to shake.

Sam stared at him for a moment before taking it firmly. He was speechless so everyone was left in an awkward silence. Elena smiled as she saw his eyes light up when he saw his parents in the exact same way that Dean's had the last time they went back in time. She looked over at the older brother sadly, wishing that they could go back to then when things were much simpler. They didn't know each other very well then but at least it wasn't all as screwed up as it was now.

"This is Sam." Dean broke it, wanting to roll his eyes at his brother.

"Sam. Uh, Mary's father was a Sam." John acknowledged.

Sam simply smiled and nodded, unconsciously still shaking John's hand.

"Uh, it's a…" Dean said, looking at Sam and John's still joined hands. "… it's a family name."

They all looked at Sam strangly.

"You okay, pal? You look a little spooked." John said, breaking him out of his trance.

He dropped John's hand.

"Oh. Oh, yeah. Just a... long trip." He stammered, nodding and smiling.

"Yeah." Dean agreed, putting his hands in his jacket pocket.

"Well, Sam and Dean were just on their way out." Mary said, trying to give them a not so subtle hint.

"What? They just got here." John said, surprising both boys with his welcoming attitude. "Real happy to meet folks from Mary's side. Please come on in for a beer." He said, gesturing inside.

"Twist my arm." Dean said with a smile as Mary glared at him.

Once they gathered in the living room, Elena simply stood in the corner.

"Are you sure you're okay, Sam?" John asked after a few minutes of awkward conversation in which Sam hadn't said a word, just staring at Mary.

"W… oh. Yeah, yeah. Um, I'm just, um… you are so beautiful." he breathed to Mary.

Elena shook her head, laughing at his creepiness. John leaned forward with a defensive gaze as Dean rolled his eyes.

"He means that in a… a non-weird, wholesome, family kind of a way." The older brother covered for the younger.

"Yeah, right." Sam nodded, snapping out of his reverie.

"We haven't seen Mary in… in quite some time, and… see, she's the spitting image of our mom. I mean, it's… it's…" Dean stammered.

"Eerie." Sam nodded, finishing for him.

John nodded, looking convinced once again. Elena sighed, leaning her head back. Dr. Phil had nothing on the twisted family situation she was witnessing right now.

"So, how are you guys related?" John asked.

"You know, uh, distantly." Dean shrugged.

"Oh. So you knew Mary's parents?" he questioned, looking between them.

"Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Mary's dad was, uh, pretty much like a grandpa to us." Dean explained.

"Oh. That was tragic… that heart attack." John said sympathetically, reaching over to squeeze Mary's hand.

"Yes, it was." Dean said solemnly, his eyes flashing to Mary.

John focused on them once again and Elena began tapping her foot impatiently. Part of her wished that Anna would show up so that she would at least have someone to yell at.

"So, uh, what are you guys doing in town, anyway?" John questioned.

"Uh, business, you know." Dean shrugged.

"Oh, yeah? What line of work?"

"Plumbing." Sam said at the same time Dean said, "Scrap metal."

Mary stood up abruptly, attempting to cover their mistake and get them gone once more.

"Oh, gosh. It's almost seven. I hate to be rude, but I got to get dinner ready." She said, smoothing her shirt.

"Maybe they could stay." John suggested, looking up at her.

"I'm sure they have to leave." Mary practically said through gritted teeth.

Elena felt sorry for the girl. She was just trying to have a normal life with John and here they were showing up on her doorstep once more.

The phone suddenly rang in the kitchen.

"Uh, look, please stay. You know, it would mean a lot to me. I haven't met much of Mary's side of the family." He said pleadingly before going into the kitchen to answer the phone.

"You have to leave. Now." Mary hissed as soon as he was out of the room.

"Okay, just listen…" Dean said, standing up.

"No, you listen. Last time I saw you, a demon killed my parents. Now you waltz in here like you're family? Whatever you want… no. Leave me alone." She snapped.

"You and John are in danger." Sam said, standing up as well.

"What are you talking about?" Mary asked, narrowing her eyes at him.

"Something's coming for you." Dean sighed.

"Demon?" she questioned, sounding panicked but resigned at the same time.

"Not exactly."

"Well, what, then?" she demanded.

"It's kind of hard to explain, okay? It's… it's…" Dean searched his mind for the best way to say this.

"An angel." Sam finished bluntly as Dean shook his head.

Mary laughed in disbelief.

"What? There's no such thing." She scoffed.

"I wish. But they're twice as strong as demons. And bigger dicks." Dean informed her.

"Why would an angel want to kill us?" she asked, sounding as though she might believe them.

"It's a long story, and we'll tell you the whole thing, but right now, you've got to trust us, and we got to go. Look at my face and tell me if I'm lying to you." Dean said, looking deep into her eyes.

Mary stared at him for a moment before sighing.

"Okay. Where do we go?" she asked.

"Out of here. We got to move now, though." He said.

"Okay. But what do I tell John?" Mary questioned.

"Just tell him…" Dean trailed off as he looked around.

Elena peeked into the kitchen to see that John wasn't there. That wasn't a good thing.

"John?" Dean said.

Mary walked into the kitchen, catching sight of a note. She pulled it off of the wall and then turned to Dean, looking panicked.

"Where would he have gone?" Dean asked.

"This is important. We need to know exactly where." Sam said.

"Maybe the garage?" she said questioningly.

* * *

"Mr. Woodson? You still here?" John called as he walked into the mechanic garage, trying to find his boss who called him to come in to talk about his job.

He turned on a light and caught sight of Mr. Woodson lying down on the ground. He ran over and turned him over. His eyes were burned out and he was dead. He backed away slowly with wide eyes, turning to see a redhead woman standing in front of him. She didn't say a word, grabbing him and flinging him across the room into a shelf that fell over with him on top. Anna walked forward to attack him once again but her vision blurred and she staggered, blinking quickly. John got up and grabbed a crowbar, hitting her over the head with it. She sprawled on the floor but a few moments later, as he turned to run out, she was standing in front of him. She grabbed him and flung him over a car. Suddenly she was thrown into the wall by an invisible force.

Elena glared at her as she walked forward. She was the only one there, for now. She couldn't apparate Dean, Sam, and Mary there so she had to go on her own. The bad thing was that they had the angel blade and all she had was her small dagger and her abilities. Anna glared at her as she walked forward.

"You can't stop me, Elena." she warned.

"You have to know you're in the wrong, Anna. Before you would have done anything to keep from being like your siblings and now you're no different from them." Elena said, looking to see that John was unconscious.

"I am only trying to do what is right. If you could have the clarity of vision that I do, you would realize that killing Sam is the best thing for everyone." Anna said, walking forward.

Her hand flicked out and Elena flew backwards, flipping over a cart of tools. At that moment, Dean ran in holding the angel-killing sword.

"I wish I could say it's good to see you, Anna." He said, walking forward while gripping it.

"You too, Dean." Anna said, launching forward and grabbing his neck.

She forced the blade out of his hand and it clattered to the ground. Then she threw him through a window before turning to grab it. Mary was already holding it, twirling it to get a better grip before advancing on Anna. Elena ran forward and saw John reviving. He looked up in time to see Mary fighting Anna like an expert hunter. She slashed at Anna and cut her hand. Then she darted forward with the sword but Anna ducked and disappeared, reappearing behind her. She caught her hand and wrapped her own hand around around Mary's throat.

"I'm sorry." She murmured, throwing her backwards into a windshield.

Anna began advancing on her slowly but Elena caught her shoulder, turning her and throwing a punch at her face, dodging the hit that Anna threw back. Mary and John watched with confusion as Anna seemed to be fighting an invisible force to them. Elena matched Anna blow for blow, ignoring the radiating pain that came from the angel's powerful hits. Anna certainly wasn't holding back on her. Mary slid off of the car that she landed on and grabbed the dropped crowbar, running up and shoving it through Anna's chest. Anna looked down, pulling it out at Elena stumbled away and wiped her bleeding lip.

"Sorry. It's not that easy to kill an angel." Anna said, turning to look at Mary, who was staring at her with wide eys.

"No." Sam said and they turned to see him standing with a bloody palm next to an angel-banishing sigil.

"But you can distract 'em."

Elena sighed with relief as he slapped his palm to the sigil. It burned as Anna vanished. Mary bent over, catching her breath. Then she caught sight of John staring at her with wide eyes as Dean ran back into the room.

* * *

Elena shifted uncomfortably in the back between Dean and Sam. They'd had to be sneaky about getting her in the car without Mary and John seeing. It was a matter of time before they asked why Anna was fighting someone who seemed invisible. Mary was in the passenger seat and John was in the back.

"Monsters. Monsters?" John scoffed.

"Yes." Mary said.

"Monsters are real."

"I'm sorry, I didn't know how…" Mary began.

"And you fight them? All of you?" he demanded, interrupting her.

"Yeah." Sam piped up.

"How long?" John demanded, his hands gripping the steering wheel.

"All my life. John, just try to understand…" Mary began desperately.

"She didn't exactly have a choice…" Dean said.

"Shut up, all of you! Look, not another word, or so help me, I will turn this car around!" John yelled, sounding panicked and angry and afraid all once.

Silence fell as everyone stared straight ahead.

"Wow. Awkward family road trip." Dean whispered.

"No kidding." Sam nodded.

* * *

They looked up as the Impala pulled up to a house that was in the middle of the country. It didn't look well maintained but it was somewhat safe for now. Mary walked inside ahead of everyone, flipping on a lightswitch as she did so.

"Place has been in the family for years." She explained, bending down and flipping up a round carpet. "Devil's trap. Pure iron fixtures, of course."

She stood and turned on another switch as she proceeded further into the house.

"Um, there should be salt and holy water in the pantry, knives, guns."

"All that stuff will do is piss it off." Sam informed her.

"So, what will kill it? Or slow it down, at least?" Mary asked as John watched them all warily.

"Not much." Sam answered as they proceeded into the kitchen.

"Great." Mary laughed humorlessly.

"He said not much, not nothing. We packed." Dean said, thumping the duffle bag on the table and rummaging through it.

"If we put this up and she comes close…" he said, holding out a paper with an angel-banishing sigil drawn on it. "… we beam her right off the starship."

Mary murmured interestedly as Sam pulled out one of the jugs.

"This is holy oil. It's kind of like a, like a devil's trap for angels. Come on. I'll show you how it works." Sam said, turning to walk out.

Mary looked at John hesitantly before following him.

"What was that… angel… fighting in the garage when she wasn't fighting any of you? It was… invisible." John said.

Dean's eyes flashed around the room as Elena slid up onto the counter.

"You won't believe me if I told you." he sighed.

John's eyes narrowed angrily.

"Try me." he challenged him.

"All right. We, Sam and I, have this sort of guardian. She helps us out in sticky situations. Only the angels got a hold of her and sort of cursed her. We can't see her but she can see us. She's here right now. Say hi, Elena." Dean said.

Elena pulled her knife out of her boot and threw it at the wall, whizzing it right by John's head with a perfect accuracy. John paled as she smirked. Sometimes this invisible thing had perks, like freaking people out.

"Unbelievable." John whispered.

"I told you." Dean said, smirking at the knife stuck into the wall.

Elena concentrated on it and focused on Zachariah, causing the knife to go flying gracefully back into her hand, passing John's face once more for her amusement.

"Uh… what's the deal with the thing on the paper?" John asked, wanting to change the subject from their invisible guardian.

"It's a sigil. That means…" Dean began.

"I don't care what it means. Where does it go?" he interrupted him.

Dean stared at him, looking exasperated with his father.

"On a wall or a door." He said in a flat voice.

"How big should I make it?" John asked holding his hand out for the paper.

"John…" he began.

"What? Y'all might have treated me like a fool, but I am not useless. I can draw a damn…" he yanked the paper away. "… whatever it is… a sigil." he snapped.

"Why don't you go help Sam out? Okay? 'Cause this has got to be done in... it's got to be done in human blood." Dean said.

John stared at him for a moment before picking up a knife and unsheathing it. Elena had to give him props, he didn't even wince when he sliced his palm open. Now she knew exactly where Dean got his stubborness from. And his quick anger too.

"So, how big?" John asked.

"I'll show you." Dean said, raising his eyebrows and laughing a bit.

"What?" he asked, confused.

"All of a sudden, you..." Dean shook his head, turning to walk out of the room. "… you really remind me of my dad."

Elena walked out, following them closely. She watched as Dean showed John how big before going to make sure that the doors were locked. Sam came up a few minutes later to see that John was halfway through it.

"That's really good." He complimented.

"You come to check on me?" John shot back, staring at the wall instead of looking at Sam.

"Uh... I wanted to say I… I'm sorry about all this. I… I know it's a lot." Sam stammered, sort of unsure of how to talk to his past father.

John sighed turning to him.

"Look, how long have you known about this... hunting stuff?" he asked.

"Pretty much forever. My dad raised me in it." Sam shrugged, sitting on the arm of a couch as he watched John continue to draw the sigil.

"You're serious? Who the hell does that to a kid?" John scoffed and Elena shook her head.

"If only you knew." She murmured.

"Well, I mean, for the record, Mary's parents did." Sam said.

"I don't care. You know, what kind of irresponsible bastard lets a child anywhere near… y-you know, you could've been killed!" John exclaimed.

"I, uh... came kind of close." Sam said, laughing slightly.

"The number it must've done on your head... your father was supposed to protect you."

"He was trying. He died trying. Believe me." Sam said, his head bowing down. "I used to be mad at him. I… I mean, I used to... I used to hate the guy. But now I… I... I get it. He was... just doing the best he could."

Elena stared at him, wondering if he really felt this way or if his emotions were just twisted up from the situation they were in. John turned, listening to Sam as he spoke.

"And he was trying to keep it together in… in… in this impossible situation. See... my mom, um... she was amazing, beautiful, and she was the love of his life. And she got killed. And... I think he would have gone crazy if he didn't do something. Truth is, um, my dad died before I got to tell him that I understand why he did what he did. And I forgive him for what it did to us. I do. And I just… I love him." Sam said, staring down at his hands as he spoke.

Elena bit her lip, turning away to walk out as she turned the words over in her head. She didn't have a good opinion of John Winchester because she'd only ever heard things about him from Dean and Sam and they weren't usually good things. But there was obviously another side to the story that she never considered thinking of. She wished, in that moment, that she could hear the future John Winchester's side of things.

* * *

"Uriel." Anna said as the other angel appeared.

He turned and stared at her.

"You look well." she said, smiling as she walked forward.

"You shouldn't have called. We're under strict orders not to come down here, much less take a vessel." He said.

Then his eyes narrowed and he studied her.

"You're not the Anna of now." Uriel realized.

"No, but thirty years from now, I'm still your superior. I need you to kill some humans." she said, nodding at him.

"Always happy to do some smiting. But what's going on?" he questioned, putting his hands in his pockets.

"In the future, these people are going to kill you, Uriel. I'm giving you the chance to kill them first." She explained.

He studied her before smiling.

"Thank you."

* * *

Dean walked in the front room to see Mary pouring a circle of holy oil.

"Okay. You said you'd explain everything when we had a minute. We have a minute. Why does an angel want me dead?" she said, straightening up.

"Cause they're dicks." Dean shrugged as if it was obvious, leaning against the wall casually.

Mary laughed, shaking her head.

"Not good enough. I didn't even know they existed, and now I'm a target?" she questioned, standing in front of him.

"It's complicated." He admitted.

She pursed her lips at him before setting the jug down on the table in the entryway.

"Fine." She said. "All ears."

"You're just gonna have to trust me, okay?" Dean asked, wondering if she was actually going to accept that.

"I've been trusting you all day." She shot back.

He knew that he should have been expecting that. It's what he would have said.

"It's kind of hard to believe." He sighed.

"All right, then. I'm walking out the door." She said, turning to walk away.

"I'm your son." Dean said quickly.

"What?" Mary said, turning back to him.

"I'm your son. Sorry. I don't know how else to say it. We're from the year 2010. An angel zapped us back here. Not the one that attacked you, friendlier." He explained.

Mary scoffed, staring at him as if he was crazy.

"You can't expect me to believe that." she said.

"Our names are Dean and Sam Winchester. We're named after your parents. When I would get sick, you would make me tomato-rice soup, because that's what your mom made you. And instead of a lullaby, you would sing Hey Jude, cause that's your favorite Beatles song."

Elena walked in the room, watching as Mary shook her head, crying. Sam wasn't far behind her, having heard everything as well.

"I... I don't believe it. No." she refused.

"I'm sorry, but it's true." Dean said.

A few tears slid down her cheeks.

"I raised my kids to be hunters?" she asked, her voice breaking.

"No. No, you didn't." he assured her.

"How could I do that to you?" Mary said miserably, sounding horrified with herself.

"You didn't do it. Because you're dead." Dean finally said, causing her eyes to widen.

He could have broken that to her a little easier but Elena could tell that he was bursting at the seams to tell her this.

"What? What happened?" Mary questioned softly.

"Yellow-eyed demon. He killed you, and… John became a hunter to get revenge. He raised us in this life. Listen to me. A demon comes into Sam's nursery exactly six months after he's born. November second, nineteen eighty-three. Remember that date. And whatever you do, do not go in there. You wake up that morning and you take Sam and you run." He said desperately.

"That's not good enough, Dean." Sam said, standing the doorway

They turned to look at him.

"Wherever she goes, the demon's gonna find her. Find me." he said sadly.

"Well, then what?" Dean snapped, wondering if he had any good ideas.

"She can leave Dad. That's what. You got to leave John." Sam nodded and Elena sighed, leaning against the wall.

Why couldn't they see that this was never going to work? The angels were never going to let Sam and Dean not be born.

"What?" Mary breathed.

"When this is all over, walk away, and never look back." Sam told her.

"So we're never born." Dean agreed, looking at his mother. "He's right."

"I… I can't. You're saying that you're my children, and now you're saying…" Mary said, shaking her head.

"You have no other choice. There's a big difference between dying and never being born. And trust me, we're okay with it, I promise you that." Dean said.

Elena stared at him with horror.

"Well I'm sure as hell not okay with it, you self-sacrificing son of a bitch!" she yelled, tempted to throw her knife at him now.

"Okay, well, I'm not." Mary said, voicing her thoughts.

"Listen, you think you can have that normal life that you want so bad, but you can't. I'm sorry. It's all gonna go rotten. You are gonna die, and your children will be cursed." Sam said harshly.

"There… there has to be a way." she said, shaking her head.

"No, this is the way. Leave John." The younger brother said desperately.

Elena watched as Mary's hands folded over her stomach and she knew.

"I can't." she murmured.

"This is bigger than us. There are so many more lives at stake…"

"You don't understand. I can't." Mary interrupted Sam.

She paused as Sam and Dean's eyes fell to her stomach and they sighed, realizing as well.

"It's too late. I'm... I'm pregnant." She admitted, confirming what they all knew.

While the brothers absorbed this, John walked in.

"Hey, we got a problem. Those blood things, the sigils… they're gone." He said, gesturing behind him.

"Gone as in..." Sam trailed off.

"I drew one on the back of the door. I turned around. And when I looked back again, it was a smudge." He explained.

Dean and Sam exchanged wary looks before Dean went to check.

"He's right." they heard him call.

Mary bent down to check to the oil circle she just poured.

"There's no more holy oil." She informed them.

Suddenly a familiar high pitched squealing filled the room. Sam drew the angel sword as the rest of them covered their ears. The windows began shattered but Elena remained upright. The sound of an angel's true voice didn't bother her anymore, apparently. The lightbulbs all shattered, plunging the room into darkness. Elena turned and focused on the door, trying to keep it closed. It flew open anyways and she sighed angrily. There was the sound of angel wings and a man appeared in the door, walking in.

"Who the hell are you?" Dean asked, stepping forward.

Elena looked back and pushed him away with her mind, startling him.

"I'm Uriel." The man said.

"Oh, come on." Elena and Dean complained at the same time, sure that they weren't going to have to deal with this particular asshole again.

"Go." Sam said, urging John and Mary to run.

They turned to see Anna blocking the other exit, her eyes narrowed. Elena snapped her fingers, getting Uriel to focus on her.

"They aren't the guys you want." She said, stepping forward.

"They kill me, don't they?" Uriel asked.

"Nope, that would be me." she said with a shrug.

"You? A puny little human?" he scoffed.

"Am I, though?" she asked.

He stared at her before sniffing the air.

"No…" he murmured.

"Hi, I'm your future killer." She said, waving with a smile before she walked forward, gripping her knife.

"That's forged by angels." He said, staring at it.

"Cheers for your deduction. I'm truly impressed. Here I thought you just were a oafish dick with wings. Oh wait… you are." Elena snapped, glaring at him.

She heard a fight going on behind and a window smashed. She hoped that Dean and Sam could handle Anna since she was weakened. Uriel was the angel that they had to worry about.

"You are a smart-mouthed little thing. I think I might like you. It's a shame I have to kill you." he said, walking forward as well.

"Sammy!" Elena heard Dean shout in a panicked voice.

She felt a sharp pain in her head and she was suddenly shoved against the wall by Uriel holding his hand around her throat. It didn't matter, she couldn't feel Sam anymore. He was dead. She had to get to him.

"Anna." They heard a deep voice say.

They turned to see John there but he wasn't John, they could sense that.

"Michael." Anna said and Uriel dropped Elena turning to stare at Michael respectfully.

Michael reached out, putting his hand on Anna's shoulder. She suddenly bursted into flames, screaming loudly. They all stared as she disappeared. The archangel turned to Uriel, narrowing his eyes at him.

"Michael. I didn't know." Uriel began.

"Goodbye, Uriel." He said, snapping his fingers and Uriel disappeared.

"What did you do to John?" Mary demanded.

"John is fine." Michael replied, turning to look at her.

Elena remained pressed against the wall, her mind moving at a hundred miles an hour. How could she get the Winchesters out of this? She had to get Dean away from Michael, not that he would say yes to the archangel… but still.

"Who… what are you?" Mary asked.

"Shh..." he reached out and touched her forehead, causing her to fall to the ground.

"Well, I'd say this conversation is long overdue, wouldn't you?" Michael said.

"Fix him." Dean said, pointing at Sam.

"First... we talk. Then I fix your darling little Sammy." He replied.

Elena finally pushed away from the wall, starting towards Sam. Michael's eyes fell on her and narrowed, causing her to remain in place. She wasn't about to challenge the ultimate archangel. She wasn't that stupid. She would just have to take it on faith that he would fix Sam.

"How'd you get in my dad, anyway?" Dean demanded, staring at Michael.

"I told him I could save his wife, and he said yes." Michael explained, looking down at John's body.

"I guess they oversold me being your one and only vessel." He scoffed.

"You're my true vessel but not my only one."

"What is that supposed to mean?" Dean questioned.

"It's a bloodline." Michael said.

"A bloodline?" the older Winchester brother said, confused

"Stretching back to Cain and Abel. It's in your blood, your father's blood, your family's blood." Michael explained.

"Awesome. Six degrees of Heaven Bacon. What do you want with me?" Dean snapped, making Elena shake her head.

Even when he was faced with the most powerful angel who wanted nothing more than to possess his body, he was a smartass.

"You really don't know the answer to that?" Michael questioned doubtfully, showing that he too could be a smartass.

"Well, you know I ain't gonna say yes, so why are you here? What do you want with me?!" Dean growled, making Elena smile slightly.

It was good to know that he was still convinced that he wasn't going to say yes.

"I just want you to understand what you and I have to do." Michael said.

"Oh, I get it. You got beef with your brother. Well, get some therapy, pal. Don't take it out on my planet!" he yelled.

"You're wrong. Lucifer defied our father, and he betrayed me. But still... I don't want this any more than you would want to kill Sam." Michael said, turning away and looking down. "You know, my brother, I practically raised him. I took care of him in a way most people could never understand, and I still love him."

He turned back to look at Dean, an emotionless look still on his face despite his emotional words.

"But I am going to kill him because it is right and I have to." He said.

"Oh, because God says so?" Dean scoffed.

"Yes. From the beginning, he knew this was how it was going to end."

"And you're just gonna do whatever God says."

"Yes, because I am a good son." Michael nodded.

"Okay, well, trust me, pal. Take it from someone who knows… that is a dead-end street." Dean informed him.

"And you think you know better than my father? One unimportant little man. What makes you think you get to choose?" Michael asked, tilting his head to the side.

"Because I got to believe that I can choose what I do with my unimportant little life." Dean shot back.

"You're wrong. You know how I know?"

Dean stared at Michael before gesturing for him to continue.

"Think of a million random acts of chance that let John and Mary be born, to meet, to fall in love, to have the two of you. Think of the million random choices that you make, and yet how each and every one of them brings you closer to your destiny. Do you know why that is? Because it's not random. It's not chance. It's a plan that is playing itself out perfectly. Free will's an illusion, Dean. That's why you're going to say yes." Dean glared at him at his words.

"Oh, buck up. It could be worse. You know, unlike my brothers, I won't leave you a drooling mess when I'm done wearing you. I'll give you back to Elena. You'll live happily ever after in Paradise with the rest of us. We will reward you." Michael said.

"Well, what about my dad?" Dean asked, gesturing to John's body.

"Better than new. In fact, I'm gonna do your mom and your dad a favor." Michael said.

"What?" he asked warily.

"Scrub their minds. They won't remember me or you."

Dean's eyes widened and Elena looked down, knowing that she was right. The angels weren't going to take the chance that Mary heeded Dean and Sam's warning.

"You can't do that." Dean said quickly.

"I'm just giving your mother what she wants. She can go back to her husband, her family…"

"She's gonna walk right into that nursery!" Dean interrupted him, yelling.

"Obviously." Michael shrugged, walking past Dean and towards Elena where she was still rooted in her spot.

His eyes met hers and she felt a chill go down her spine.

"And you always knew that was going to play out one way or another." He said as he turned back to Dean. "You can't fight City Hall." he shrugged.

Then he walked over to Sam and pressed two fingers to his forehead. The younger brother vanished and the pipe that was buried in his gut clattered to the floor. Michael stood up and turned to face him.

"He's home. Safe and sound. Your turn. I'll see you soon, Dean." Michael said, walking to him and touching his forehead.

Dean disappeared and then he turned to Elena.

"Hello." He said pleasantly.

She looked at him hesitantly. Michael smiled slightly and snapped his fingers. They were suddenly standing in the motel room that Cas was still unconscious in.

"He used to be a good soldier." Michael said.

Elena swallowed hard, her throat and mouth extremely dry.

"You mean he used to be under your control." She replied, staring at him.

He looked over at her and gestured for her to sit at the table with him.

"Why do you want to talk to me?" she asked.

"Because I know that my brother has been seeing you an awful lot." Michael said.

Elena's blood ran cold as she thought he meant Gabriel. If he knew about Gabriel, that was not a good thing.

"Lucifer is a very good manipulator. I wanted to make sure you recognized that."

She scoffed and crossed her legs.

"I think I can figure out when the Devil is trying to screw me over." She said.

"I'm sure you can. You have a pure heart, Elena." Michael said.

She stared at him.

"I don't need to hear you compliment me." Elena snapped.

He shrugged, leaning back.

"Then what would you like to talk about?" he asked, acting as though they were chatting over coffee.

She leaned forward hesitantly, studying him before deciding to screw it all and ask him.

"Why don't you and Lucifer battle in your true forms? Why do you need vessels? Wouldn't you be more powerful if you were all wings and halos and screeching voices?" she questioned.

Michael almost looked impressed with her question.

"It's just the way it is." He said.

She stared at him before letting out a startled laugh. His brow furrowed at her.

"You are all the same. From Castiel to Anna all the way to you. You blindly follow orders just because someone higher up than you told you that's how it's meant to be." she said, unable to keep the amazement out of her voice.

It was Michael's turn to smile sardonically.

"We follow orders because that is how things are meant to be. That's what keeps things in order. But you and those Winchester boys destroyed that in poor Castiel. That is why he is in that state." Michael said, pointing to him.

"Cas will survive. I'll make sure of that. We didn't destroy him. We gave him free will. That is more important than any stupid prophecy or orders. Free will. I feel terrible for you that you will never know what that truly means." Elena snapped, glaring at him, angry that he insinuated that they didn't care for Cas.

Michael sighed, shaking his head.

"Why would you waste time on free will when you always know what you're going to get in the end? Castiel's grace is fading fast. It will not be much longer before he is fully human. Then he will die because you cannot shoulder the weight of another human on your side. That is what your free will is going to get him."

"Cas isn't going to die. Dean isn't going to die. Sam isn't going to die. I will make damn sure of that. So you and all your little angel buddies can consider your Petrova guardian/doppelganger experiment a failure. Because I am not your weapon. I am not your anything. I am theirs." She said, pointing at Castiel.

"You know that I could kill you now. That would ensure that I do not have to concern myself with you in the future." Michael said.

Elena sat back.

"Then kill me." she said simply.

He stared at her.

"Kill me and see how quickly Lucifer kills Dean… and Cas… and Bobby. See how quickly Sam says yes because he has no one left and watch how instantaneously Lucifer takes over the world, destroying it with the Croatoan virus while you sit back ranting about destiny and prophecy. You might be the most powerful angel and you might be able to shatter me into a million pieces with just one look, but you are just as pathetic as your brother. You are a broken record that can't stop playing the same four beats. You can threaten me all you want but your threats are worth nothing to me because I am not afraid of you. There's nothing to be afraid of because you are pathetic." Elena ranted until she was breathless.

Michael quirked an eyebrow at her.

"You are truly a different kind of a person. Perhaps I should let you live despite the fact that my patience ran thin a while ago. If nothing else, than to ensure that you live the punishment of having to stick around Dean without him being able to see or talk to you." Michael said.

"It's up to you." she shrugged.

He smirked at her and nodded.

"I'll be seeing you, Elena."

Suddenly he disappeared and she was left in the room with Cas. She sighed and leaned back, her heart pounding in her chest. It hadn't been easy to bluff her way out of that situation. Of course she was terrified of him, she'd be a fool not to be. Standing up to him felt similarly to how she would imagine staring down the barrel of a gun would feel. She stood on shaky legs, walking to Castiel.

"Cas?" She said, kneeling on the bed next to him and shaking him.

He didn't respond and she sighed, leaning her forehead down to rest on his chest that was gently rising and falling.

"I need you, Cas. We have to get back to our time." she sighed, gripping his shirt.

He groaned and her head lifted to see his eyes slightly open.

"I need you… to help me." he managed to say as he attempted to sit up.

She helped him, gripping his hand in hers.

"What do you need me to do?" Elena asked.

"It is not enough to draw on your strength. I need to draw on the grace that resides in you. It will help me." Cas said.

"Oh, how do we do that?" she asked, looking at his exhausted eyes.

"Just let me in." he sighed, putting his other hand on her cheek.

Their eyes closed at the same time and she felt a strange tugging in her mind, as if someone was actually reaching into it.

"I don't like that feeling." She whispered.

"I apologize." Cas said, sounding truthful.

Suddenly she saw a bright and opened her eyes to see the light passing between their joined hands.

"Whoa. That's freaky." She said, her eyes wide.

Cas looked down at it as well before looking up at her.

"Ready?" he asked.

She nodded and suddenly they were standing in another motel room. It wasn't the motel room they were aiming for though. They barely had time to look around before they heard a gun cock. They turned to see a little kid holding a shotgun, pointing it up at them.

"Who the hell are you?" he demanded.

Elena stared at him with wide eyes. He couldn't have been more than nine or ten. Another figure was hiding behind the couch and his eyes were peeking out at them.

"I said, who are you?" the boy with the shotgun demanded.

His eyes flashed between them and Elena got even more surprised.

"You can see me?" she asked hesitantly.

"Of course I can see you. How did you appear here? What are you?" the boy demanded.

"We're the good guys." Cas assured him.

The boy squinted at them.

"Do you know who this is, Cas?" Elena asked, looking at him.

The angel turned to her, a hestitant look on his face.

"I believe that this is a younger Dean." He murmured softly.

* * *

**Author's Note: That ending was a spur of the moment thing. I was not planning on writing it until I was wondering how to end this chapter and that just kinda popped into my mind. I hope you're intrigued. REVIEW PLEASE!**


	20. Chapter 20

**Disclaimer: I do not own TVD or Supernatural**

**Thanks to Dark-Supernatural-Angel, DrawingMyHeartOut (twice), RHatch89, Hollywood17, 118, diehardromantic, LineChokor, Nyssandria, imusic247, slayerdiaries, chiwi, Dark Alana, and the two guests for reviewing!**

**To RHatch89, I will do the 'My Bloody Valentine' episode but not in this chapter.**

**To Hollywood17, that was my mistake. Continuity error. Sorry about that. **

**To Nyssandria, Michael doesn't know about Gabriel. Elena thought he was talking about Gabriel but it turns out that he was talking about Lucifer.**

**A few things:**

**1. This chapter is sort of me having fun. There are things that I wanted Elena to know about Dean and Sam's past without having a bunch of scenes with them sitting down and talking about them. It's much more fun this way but it's kind of scattered. It isn't my best writing but I had fun doing it. **

**2. Warning: this chapter may be not so nice to John (Winchester). But Elena is finally going to see how he acted in the past instead of hearing about it and she isn't going to be pleased.**

**3. I used scenes from past episodes and at the beginning of the scene, I put which episode it was from so that you can use it as reference to know what is going on.**

**4. Elena's outfits are on my profile.**

* * *

Elena stared at Cas for a few moments before turning back to the kid. His eyes were wide and green. He was holding a sawed off shotgun. He was even wearing the same kind of clothing and the amulet was around his neck.

"Oh my…" she breathed, staring at him with wide eyes.

"Who are you?" he demanded again, staring at them over the gun.

"Dean?" a small voice said from behind the chair.

"Stay back, Sammy." Dean instructed him.

"It's okay. We're not going to hurt you. We came here by accident." Elena assured him, putting her hands up in surrender.

"I don't believe you. You just… appeared. Out of nowhere." he said, squinting at them suspiciously.

Elena looked at Cas for help. He looked as lost as she was.

"Okay… um… do you know what salt does?" she questioned, uncertain of how much Dean knew at this age.

He stared at her for a moment before nodding.

"Well why don't you give us some salt and we'll prove that we're not bad." Elena said.

Dean backed away slowly, unzipping a bag that was on the table.

"My dad always has salt." He said, pulling out a cannister.

Elena caught it when he tossed it to her. She should have known that Dean as a ten-year-old wouldn't act like any normal ten-year-old. She poured some out on her hand before handing it to Cas. He took it with an exasperated look.

"We should just be leaving." He said, pouring some in his own hand.

"Well we can't just disappear." Elena sighed.

"Here." Dean handed them both a cup of water that he poured out from a jug with a rosary in it.

They stared down at him with wonder, seeing so many similarities between younger and older Dean. Elena poured the salt into the holy water and drank it, Cas doing the same thing. Dean stared at them to see if there were any signs of demonic reactions. When they turned to him, unaffected, he didn't look any less suspicious. He pulled a silver knife out of the bag. Cas looked over at Elena with a tired look as she sighed.

"He's not supposed to know who we are. We aren't even supposed to be here." He reminded her in a low voice as she took the knife.

"Yeah well, what can we do? He's already seen us and I'm pretty sure he's not about to forget us." She replied, gripping the knife.

After pulling her sleeve up, she dragged it across her skin and winced when it sliced it open, blood dripping down her arm. Then she cleaned it off on her skirt and handed it to Cas. He stared at her for a moment before slicing his hand.

"There. Happy?" she asked, handing the knife back to the younger version of Dean.

"How did you just… appear?" he asked, lowering the gun slightly.

"It's a long story, kid. But we gotta go. Sorry." Elena said, turning to Cas.

"Wait…" a small voice said.

They turned to see a small, shaggy-haired little boy step out. Young Sam was absolutely adorable. Elena couldn't help but smile at him as he stepped up next to Dean, who put an arm out for him to stop.

"Are you angels?"

Elena turned to look at Cas with surprise as he stared at Sam.

"What makes you say that?" she asked, looking back at him.

"I thought I heard wings." He said, clutching Dean's jacket.

She looked over at Cas. Then her eyes met Dean and his own eyes looked pleading. She'd heard them talk about how Sam believed in angels before he ever really was certain they existed. So she wasn't about to ruin that for him and Dean's eyes were begging with her not to ruin it too. He wanted his little brother to be able to hold onto that belief. She walked forward hesitantly and she squatted in front of him. His eyes looked at her soulfully.

"Can you keep a secret, Sam?" she asked.

He nodded, looking thrilled.

"That man right there is an angel." She said, pointing at Cas.

He stared at her warily, obviously uncomfortable with this situation.

"Where are your wings?" Sam asked him, his eyes wide.

"I… uh…" Cas mumbled, looking at Elena.

She stared back at him expectantly.

"You cannot see them because I have to hide them so that I can walk around among the humans. If they see them, they will be scared and…" he said, making things up as he went along.

"… and they'll try to run away or even hurt him. Not everyone is as welcoming as you are." Elena said with a smile.

Dean and Sam stared back and forth between them.

"Why are you here?" Dean asked.

"It was an accident. We were trying to go somewhere else." she explained, standing up next to Cas.

Suddenly they heard the rumbling of an engine.

"Dad is back." Dean said, his eyes wide.

"Okay we have to leave. I don't think he will be nearly as welcoming." Elena said, taking Cas' hand.

"Sammy you can't tell Dad they were here." Dean said.

"Why not?" the little boy asked.

"He won't understand, Sam. He may not believe in angels like you do." Elena said.

"Okay, I won't tell him." Sam nodded.

"Thanks boys." She said with a grin, waving before Castiel concentrated and they disappeared.

* * *

They were standing outside of a school this time.

"Cas, what is going on?" Elena said, turning to look at him.

"I am not fully rejuvinated. Time travel is very hard, as I said, when I am fully an angel. Now…" he cut off as he waved around, sounding a little bit distressed.

"It's okay, Cas. We'll figure it out. Where are we?" she wondered.

"If I was to guess, I would say another point in the Winchesters' timeline." He said, sounding unhappy about it.

"Why is this so bad, Cas?" Elena questioned.

"He is not meant to know us before he ever meets us, Elena. We are messing with time and that is a very bad thing." He explained, glaring at the school.

"We'll figure it out, Cas. Somehow, we always do." She sighed, turning to face the school as well.

Then she looked down to see that her clothes were very dirty. Her sweater was covered in dirty from being thrown around by Anna in the garage and her skirt had blood on it now.

"I look really disgusting." She commented, wrinkling her nose.

"Then change." Cas reminded her.

"Oh, right. I keep forgetting." She said with a grin, concentrating and snapping her fingers as she concentrated on an outfit.

"You can't even get us back to the timeline if I give you some of my mojo again?" she questioned, looking over at him.

"I do not want to take the chance. If I drain you too much, you'll pass into uncosciousness just as I did and we'll be even more lost." Cas informed her.

"Oh." She sighed, looking down at her new clothes and feeling refreshed.

Even her hair looked and felt like it was freshly clean and it was in natural curls down her back. Her knife was in its sheath and tied onto her belt loop on her pants.

"I am going to try something, to travel without you by my side so that I can see if it works. I will return for you, I promise." Cas said.

"Is that really a good idea when your abilities seem to be all over the place?" Elena asked, her eyes wide.

"I know exactly when and where you are, Elena. If all else fails, I'll send Gabriel back to find you." he said.

"Fine." She sighed, fearful but understanding.

Cas closed his eyes and disappeared again. Elena got a feeling of dread but squashed it down. The doors to the school suddenly open and Dean tromped out. He looked upset. When he caught sight of Elena standing there, his eyes widened.

"You." he said, almost accusingly as he walked to her slowly.

"Hello, Dean." Elena said pleasantly.

"How are you here? Again? Where's that man?" he asked, peering up at them.

"We're… lost. Sort of. He's not here right now. How long has it been since you saw us before?" She questioned.

"Six months." Dean answered.

"And you've been going to this school the whole time?" she asked, knowing what the answer would be already.

"No, I just started going here a few days ago." He replied, sounding unhappy about it.

She looked up at the building.

"And why are you out here when everyone else is still in class? Are you already skipping?" she asked, looking over at him.

"No, I was kicked out of class." He admitted, looking not at all ashamed.

She smiled, sitting on a bench that was near where they were standing.

"What did you do?" she asked, unsure of why she was so happy to be talking to the younger version of Dean.

Perhaps it had something to do with the fact that it had been weeks since she'd actually been able to talk to him. He looked down at his feet before looking back at her.

"A kid made fun of me because when the teacher asked us what we were going to do for Mother's Day, I told her that I wouldn't do anything because my mom was dead. I punched him." he informed her.

Elena looked at him sadly, recognizing the pain in his voice even though he was trying to hide it.

"I know how you feel." She said.

"You punched someone in the face too?" Dean asked, his eyebrows raising.

"Well, no. Not in a few hours, at least." She said, grinning.

He smiled back before he caught himself and stared at her with a steely expression again.

"My parents died a couple of years ago. No one else really understood. And when people don't understand something they can get a little mean about it. So I understand that you got mad at that kid, not that it's good to go around punching people." Elena said.

"You sound like my teacher." He grumbled, sitting next to her.

"Sorry." she laughed, looking over at him.

"Why do you have knife?" he asked, looking at her dagger.

"For the same reason you have a sawed off shotgun." She explained.

"You're a hunter?" he said, looking up at her.

"Of sorts." She nodded, smiling.

It was almost amazing how easy it was for her to talk to younger Dean. It was even stranger how easily he was able to talk back to her. She half expected him to treat her with more distrust than he did last time he saw her. An engine rumbled behind her and Elena turned to see the Impala, looking newer, pull up to the sidewalk. The door opened and an older, more rough and haggard looking John Winchester stepped out.

"Dean." He said in a rough voice as he walked up.

"Dad." Dean replied, sounding ashamed now.

Elena stared between them, almost shocked by the total change in behavior from Dean. Before he wasn't even close to ashamed of what he'd done in defense of himself. All it took was one word from his father, his name, for him to feel shame. It was almost sickening.

"Who is this?" John asked, looking at Elena.

"I'm in college. I volunteer here on my days off to tutor the kids. I was in Dean's class today and I wanted to make sure that he found you all right." Elena said, looking up at him.

He stared at her before nodding.

"That's nice of you." he acknowledged before turning to Dean. "Let's go. We have to get your brother. I'm done with the job, anyways."

Dean got up and walked behind his dad up to the school. Elena was watching them go when a hand clamped down on her shoulder. She looked around to see that it was Cas.

"It didn't work. I only went a year into the future. We need to try again. We need to get back to our own time." he said, causing her to stand up.

"Okay. But if we don't make it next time, we're taking a break, all right? I don't want you to kill yourself trying to get us back." she warned him.

When she looked back, she saw Dean glance back at her before following his father into the school.

"Let's go." she said, taking his hand.

* * *

Elena looked around with confusion at the street that they were standing on.

"This isn't the Winchesters' timeline, Cas. This is my house. We're in Mystic Falls." Elena said, looking at the angel who was also confused.

"No, I'm almost certain…" his eyes widened and he grabbed her hand.

She felt a tingling sensation.

"What did you do?" she asked.

"Turned us invisible." He replied.

"Why? I just got visible!" Elena complained.

"Because of that." he pointed up.

She looked over at her house to see the door open. Her parents came walking out with her mother holding a little girl's hand. Elena inhaled sharply when she recognized that the little girl was herself. She found herself walking across the street towards the house. Cas followed her.

"Miranda, they should be here any second." Grayson said, holding a baby boy in his arms as Miranda collapsed on the grass with the younger version of herself giggling happily.

He sat next to her more carefully because of Jeremy.

"Mommy, who's coming?" Young Elena asked, peering up at her mother.

"Just one of Daddy's friends, Elena." Miranda replied, brushing her hair out of her face.

The little girl smiled and went back to playing with he rmother's long hair. Elena watched with her eyes filling with tears. She didn't realize how much she missed her parents when she was so busy worrying about everything else but she really did miss them. And to see them so young and seemingly carefree, it was amazing. Her thoughts were interrupted, yet again, by the familiar low rumble of an engine.

"No…" she breathed, turning to see the Impala pull up to the curb.

She whipped her head around to stare at Cas.

"What…?" she couldn't even get out any more words.

He looked as lost as she did. Grayson stood, still holding Jeremy as John Winchester climbed out of the car.

"John!" he said, walking up to the man with a grin.

"Hey, Grayson. This your boy?" John asked, shaking hands with her father.

"Yep. This is Jeremy." He said, looking down at the sleeping child he was holding in one arm.

"He's beautiful. You did good." John nodded.

"I did nothing. It was all Miranda." Grayson said with a thrilled look, turning to see Miranda pulling young Elena off the ground to walk her over to them.

"Elena, honey, can you say hi to John?" Miranda asked with a smile as they walked up.

The little girl looked up at him and finally smiled brightly.

"Hi Mister John." She said.

"Hello Elena. Hi Miranda." He said, leaning forward to kiss Miranda's cheek.

Then he turned and thumped on the car.

"Stop being rude and come out here." He said loudly.

Elena stepped forward, watching as the doors opened. Dean climbed out first and her eyes widened. For the first time, she was seeing Dean around her age. She looked at herself and figured out that she must have been four or five. This meant Dean was seventeen or eighteen. And he looked young too. His face was set in a steely expression that seemed so similar to John's it was creepy. Sam climbed out next, all gangly limbs and shaggy hair. He was around thirteen so he was still in the awkward stage.

"Cas, I don't remember this happening. If John knew my parents, wouldn't Dean and Sam know about it? Wouldn't they remember this?" she asked, turning to the angel.

"I honestly do not know what is happening." Cas said, his brow furrowed.

"These are my boys, Sam and Dean." He said, gesturing to them.

"Yeah I remember 'em. Wow you boys are grown up." Grayson said, nodding at them.

Dean just stared back as Sam managed an easy smile. John looked over at Grayson and his face became solemn.

"I need to talk to you about something. Business something." John said.

Elena suddenly realized what was going on.

"Of course. My dad was a vampire hunter. That's how they know each other." she said, feeling better about knowing at least one piece of the puzzle.

"Miranda, you should come too." John said.

"Okay, Elena honey, how about you stay outside? You can play around the yard but don't go into the street." Miranda said, squatting down to talk to her daughter.

"Okay, Mommy." She nodded, smiling at her.

"Boys, you stay outside too." John said.

"I could come." Dean finally spoke and Elena smiled at the fact that his voice wasn't nearly as deep.

"No, stay out here." The Winchester patriarch said, his eyes narrowed at Dean as they walked up to the house.

"Son of a bitch." Dean muttered, kicking a rock as he walked up the path to sit on the stairs of the porch.

"Dean…" Sam berated in a soft voice, looking over at Elena who was watching them with a hesitant look.

"Ah she didn't hear me." he waved off, not paying much attention to her.

"Yes I did." her voice piped up and they both looked at her. "You said a bad word but I'm not gonna tell my mommy cause I don't want you to get in trouble."

Dean stared at her before nodding. Young Elena squinted at him. Then she turned to Sam.

"My name is Elena." she said, tilting her head to the side as she looked up at him.

Elena watched with wonder as Sam smiled at her and squatted down in front of her just as she'd done to him in the past fifteen minutes ago.

"My name is Sam." he said.

"Don't let him fool you, his name is Sammy." Dean said with a smirk as Sam shot him an unimpressed look.

"Sam, will you play with me?" Elena asked innocently.

The young Sam grinned at her and nodded, standing up.

"What do you want to play?" he asked.

Elena looked around the yard before smiling at the tree.

"I wanna climb." She said, grabbing Sam's hand before running to it.

"I don't know if that's a good idea." Sam said warily.

"Don't be silly. I do it all the time with Daddy." She said, turning to smile at him as she tried to reach up and grip a branch.

She was too short though and Elena remembered that her dad used to boost her up. She wasn't going to be able to reach it. As she grunted and jumped to try to get it, Sam just watched with wide eyes.

"Oh for the love of… she needs help, Sammy." Dean said with a roll of his eyes, standing up and marching over.

Young Elena squealed as he lifted her easily and placed her on the branch with her legs dangling over. She looked down at them with bright eyes and a huge smile.

"Thank you, Dean. I like you now." She said happily, leaning over to kiss his cheek.

He looked surprised, his cheeks even flushing a little before he backed away.

"Anytime, little one." He replied.

Elena watched the interaction with a slight smile.

"It's so weird. I mean, I never thought about the age gap but… it's strange." she breathed.

"Does it bother you?" Cas asked, staring at her.

She looked over at him with a raised eyebrow.

"My last boyfriend was born before the Civil War. So no." she said with a grin.

Cas stared at her before nodding and turning back.

"We should go again." He said.

"Cas I told you that you had to rest." she argued.

"I feel fine, Elena. The sooner we get out of this, the better." He said, turning to face her.

She narrowed her eyes at him before sighing and reaching out, taking his hand.

"If you die, I'm going to bring you back just to kick your ass." Elena said, truly worried about him.

"I will allow you to." He confirmed before they disappeared.

* * *

They were standing in front of a set of bleachers. The only problem was that teenage Dean was sitting on the bleachers. He looked up and his eyes widened when he saw them.

"So not invisible anymore, huh?" Elena muttered.

"I haven't seen you in… years." He said, staring at them with wide eyes.

"Yeah, well we're still kinda lost." She admitted.

"And in the same outfits." He said, squinting at their clothing.

They looked down before looking up at him. It was in that moment that Elena saw the pain in his eyes.

"Cas…" she said, looking at him.

"Elena this is dangerous." He warned her.

"There has to be a reason that this is happening. You know him in the future. He obviously doesn't remember any of this so what's the harm?" She asked.

"Fine." He sighed, backing away.

Elena walked up the bleachers to sit next to him.

"How's life?" she asked.

"Why should I talk to you? You're a strange person who keeps showing up in weird places with a guy in a trenchcoat." He grumbled, looking down at his hands.

"Did you get turned down by a hot girl?" she asked, sensing that it had something to do with that considering that Dean was quite the womanizer even in high school.

He looked over at her with a slightly guilty expression.

"No, that's the problem. I was hooking up with another girl in the closet and the girl that I was originally hooking up with found us and got mad and started ranting about how I'm damaged and shit in the middle of the hallway." He snapped, gesturing towards the school.

"Oh so she embarrassed you after you humiliated her by hooking up with some other girl." Elena said with a smirk, leaning back to lean against the bench that was behind her.

He looked over at her, surprised by the teasing tone in her voice.

"Who are you?" he asked.

"You're gonna have to wait a few years for the answer to that, Dean. Sorry." She said, shrugging.

"I should tell my dad about you. He would want to know that you keep showing up." He said.

"Your dad would want to hunt me." Elena said bluntly.

"Would he be right in wanting to hunt you?" he asked.

"You tell me. I did the thing with the knife and the salt. I'm not a threat to you, Dean. I mean it when I say I'm lost. That man and I are jumping through timelines until we get back to where we need to be." Elena explained.

"Time travel doesn't exist." He scoffed.

"Oh yeah?" Elena pulled off her jacket and held out her arm, showing him the wound that she never healed from when she cut herself with the silver knife.

"This is the wound that I gave myself when I proved that I wasn't a shapeshifter to you. The exact same wound. That was, what, seven years ago for you?" She asked, pointing at it.

He stared at it with shock before looking up at her.

"Why me? I mean why do you keep showing up in my timelines?" he asked.

She smiled, shrugging.

"I would like to say that I have a choice but I don't. I think it has something to do with the fact that we were coming from your past in the first place." she said.

"My past? So you knew who I was before you showed up in that hotel room when I was younger?" he asked, looking suspicious.

"Of course. I know that you love bacon cheeseburgers. I know that you made your first sawed off shotgun in sixth grade. I know that you are hoping that your dad gives you that Impala when he doesn't want it anymore and I know that, one day, you are going to get it and you are going to treat it like your baby. I know that you have an obsession with classic rock and that leather jacket that you're wearing belonged to your father." Elena said, smiling over at him.

He stared at her.

"You're from my future?"

She smiled.

"And your past, apparently." She said, looking up at Cas.

He beckoned her to him. It was time to go. She smiled over at Dean.

"Don't worry about the girl that called you out on your shit. There are other fish in the sea." She said, leaning over and kissing his cheek before walking to Cas.

* * *

"All right this is getting seriously scary now, Cas. What if we never get back?" Elena said, looking up at the motel that they were standing outside of.

"I'm more concerned with the fact that you continue to speak to Dean despite my warnings." The angel said.

Elena sighed before their heads snapped up at the sound of yelling. A motel room door slammed open and a teenage Sam came stomping out.

"If you walk out that door, don't you ever come back!" a deep voice yelled from inside the motel room.

Sam shook his head, tears running down his face as he hoisted a duffle bag over his shoulder. Cas and Elena watched as Dean came running out behind him.

"Sam! Sam stop!" he said, yanking Sam back and turning him around.

"Let me go, Dean!" the younger brother yelled, trying to shove him away.

"Hey! You aren't leaving, okay? This is just another one of your and dad's stupid fights. Come on. Let's go to a bar." Dean said, clutching his arms.

Sam shoved him away again.

"No, Dean! I'm not going to stay here!" he yelled, pushing him off finally.

"So what, you're just leaving us?" Dean shouted back.

"I'm not like you and dad, Dean. I don't want to be a hunter! I don't have to follow Dad's ridiculous crusade! Not anymore! I have a full ride scholarship to a great college and I am not about to throw that away! This is my chance and I am taking it!"

Elena knew that they were witnessing the moment that Dean and Sam went their separate ways.

"You're a selfish son of a bitch, you know that?" Dean growled.

"Yeah, I guess I am, Dean. But I'm gonna have a life. I'm gonna have a damn good life and there is not a thing that you and dad can do to take this away from me!" Sam bellowed.

People were peeking out of motels to see what was going on.

"Sammy just come back in!" Dean said, grabbing his arm to pull him inside.

Sam launched out and threw his fist into Dean's face.

"I'm not going back in!" he yelled as Dean stumbled backwards.

The older brother's eyes flashed and he suddenly tackled Sam, throwing him to the ground. People ran forward to peel them off of each other as they wrestled around, their punches hitting each other's faces with accuracy. Elena remained where she was, watching as she knew that this was the moment when Dean and Sam's relationship first started crumbling. This was where their trust issues where each other stemmed from. She looked over to see John watched from the doorway, a bottle of whiskey in his hand.

Two men finally managed to get Sam and Dean apart. Dean glared at Sam before turning to walk in the other direction towards a bar that was across the street. Sam picked up his bag and looked at the doorway to the motel to see his dad standing there. He shook his head, tears running down his face, before he turned and walked off too.

"Elena…" Cas said in a warning voice.

"I know." She sighed, knowing that she should stay away from Dean now.

But the urge to go after both him and Sam and comfort them was almost overwhelming.

"It's hard to stay away, Cas." She admitted.

"I know. You have a very strong bond to both of them and your emotions are connected to that bond. That is why you have a hard time not going after them." He explained.

She turned to look at John, who was still standing there.

"I don't understand how he can watch that and act so careless about it." she said.

"Humans have the ability to justify their actions in their minds. He most likely thinks that he just did what is best." Cas said.

"Well it wasn't and those two boys are so messed up because of him, even now." she snapped.

"No one is perfect, Elena. It is a shame that John Winchester's mistakes managed to affect his sons so badly." The angel said.

"I just want to get home, Cas." She sighed, tired of this time travelling thing after witnessing what she just did.

He reached out to touch her shoulder.

* * *

**Present Day**

Sam and Dean were about to start drinking the bottle of whiskey that Dean bought. Cas hadn't returned and they had no idea where Elena was since neither of them felt her presence in the room with them. Sam was unwrapping a pair of plastic cups in front of the sink. When he looked up, he saw Cas standing there with blood dripping out of his nose as she swayed dazedly.

"Castiel!" he exclaimed, turning to grab hold of him to keep him from falling.

"Hey. Hey, hey. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa." He said as they stumbled together.

"Cas!" Dean hurried over and helped keep him upright.

"We got you." Sam assured him.

"You son of a bitch. You made it." Dean sighed, wondering if Elena was there too.

"I... I did?" he said, looking at his hands. "I'm very surprised."

Then his eyes darted around.

"Where's Elena? She isn't here? Where is she?" he said.

"What?" Dean said, panicking as well.

Cas looked at them before collapsing.

"Whoa! You're okay." Sam said as they caught his limp body.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa." Dean said as they held him up.

He was fully unconscious now.

"Bed?" Dean asked.

"Yeah, yeah." Sam nodded.

They hauled him to the bed and laid him down on it. His eyes fluttered open and he looked up at them.

"Do you… remember… Elena…?" he choked out, trying to ask them something.

"Of course we remember her, Cas. We're not about to forget her." Dean said.

"No, no. Do you remember… meeting her… before the gas station?" he asked.

They stared at him.

"No, Cas. The gas station is the first time I met her. What are you talking about?" he asked.

Cas stared up at him for a moment before passing out again. Dean turned to look at Sam with confusion.

"Well, I could use that drink now." He said.

"Yeah." Sam agreed.

Dean poured out two drinks.

"Well... this is it." he said, turning to face Castiel as he handed Sam one of the cups.

"This is what?" Sam asked before taking a sip.

"Team Free Will. One ex-blood junkie, one dropout with six bucks to his name, an invisible guardian that may or may not be missing, and Mr. Comatose over there. It's awesome." He said gruffly, gesturing to Cas.

Sam shook his head.

"It's not funny." He said to his older brother.

Dean took a drink.

"I'm not laughing." He agreed.

Sam sighed, staring down at the bed.

"They all say we'll say yes."

"I know. It's getting annoying." Dean said grumpily.

"What if they're right?" Sam asked as Dean took another long drink.

"They're not." He replied easily.

"I mean, why, why would we, either of us? But... I've been weak before." Sam shrugged, sitting in a chair.

"Sam..." Dean sighed.

"Michael got Dad to say yes." Sam interrupted.

"That was different. Anna was about to kill Mom." Dean brushed off.

"And if you could save Mom... what would you say?" Sam questioned.

They both remained silent.

* * *

**1x11 – Scarecrow**

When Elena opened her eyes, she was alone and in the middle of a road.

"Cas?" she yelled, looking around wildly.

He wasn't anywhere to be seen. That was when she saw the car heading for her. The car screeched to a stop as she scrambled out of the way.

"What the hell?" a voice demanded as she stood there staring with wide eyes at the Impala.

Dean climbed out of the car and stared at her with surprise.

"You… again." he said.

He looked older, probably in his later twenties. That meant that Sam should have been travelling with him so she was confused to see the passenger seat empty.

"Hi." She said, looking around as she waved.

It wasn't really her fault that they were talking. It's not like she appeared in the middle of the road that he was driving down for kicks and giggles.

"Did you make this go off?" he asked, holding up an EMF detector.

"No, I'm not a ghost." She said, looking around with confusion.

"Well, something did. Where is that angel friend of yours?" He scoffed.

"Not here." She said, looking at him.

"I can see that. So judging by the fact that you're wearing the same clothes and all that, you're still lost?" Dean questioned, shutting the door and walking towards her.

"Even more so than usual." She said, concerned that Cas wasn't there.

"You gonna tell me who you are now? Cause I'm getting more and more suspicious." Dean said.

"I can't." she said.

"Right, cause you're from my future." He said.

"You've got a birthmark on the inside of your left leg." She said.

His eyes widened.

"That's pretty high up my leg." He said.

She simply turned and winked at him with a smirk.

"So… you and I…" he began.

"Stop, stop right now." She said, holding up a hand as she tried to figure out how she was going to get out of this.

Gabriel and Cas told her that there was a chance that she could travel through time but that it would take a lot of energy and she would have to really train for it. It was looking like the training part wasn't about to happen because she was all alone and Cas was nowhere to be found. For all she knew, he could be dead. It was a terrible thought but she didn't have time to dwell on it.

"I'm just saying… if you and I in the future…" he said.

"I am not sleeping with you." she said.

"Well it was worth a try." He shrugged.

"Where is Sam?" she demanded.

His face hardened.

"Sam's gone." He said.

"And why is that?" she asked, crossing her arms.

"Because we had a difference of opinions. Dad sent us here to do a case but Sam wanted to go to California instead to find him. So we went our separate ways." he said roughly.

"You two are such stubborn assholes." She sighed, rolling her eyes.

"Yeah well, I have a case to investigate." Dean said, grabbing a shotgun out of the back before turning to the trees that led to what looked like an orchard.

He stopped and turned to look at her.

"Wanna come?" he asked.

She stared at him for a moment before shrugging and following him. She tromped through the forest behind him, coming to a clearing. When he stopped and looked up, she did as well.

"Dude, you fugly." He said, looking up at the terrifying scarecrow.

Elena laughed and shook her head. Then she looked up at the thing and realization dawned on her.

"Oh yeah, I remember this." she said, looking around.

"What?" he said, looking over at her.

"You, uh, you told me about it. The creepy scarecrow." She said, realizing that he was right in describing it as the 'creepiest fucking straw stuffed thing'.

"So… you know what happens." Dean said, looking at her.

She looked back at him and narrowed her eyes at him.

"You don't seem nearly as suspicious at all of this time travel stuff as you should be." she said.

"I am thoroughly suspicious but you… intrigue me." he said with a sparkle in his eye.

He was trying to seduce her again. She smiled and shook her head, backing away.

"I think I gotta get going, Romeo." She said, turning away.

"Wait, can you at least tell me how to defeat this thing?" he asked loudly.

"Sorry, you'll have to figure it out yourself! Don't worry. I'm sure you survive!" she called back, waving over her shoulder.

When she reached the road, she looked around.

"Cas? I don't know what to do here!" she called.

There was no answer.

"But of course you're nowhere to be found." She sighed, looking down.

"Okay, here goes nothing." She said, shaking her head.

She squeezed her eyes closed and focused on the motel room in her normal time. She felt the tingling feeling spread through her body but at the same time, she felt like her energy drained from her. Her eyes opened and she found that she was standing in a motel room, but not the one that she needed to be.

"Hey, you again. I'm starting to think you're doing this on purpose." She heard Dean's voice.

She stumbled towards him and he caught her.

"Hey, hey it's okay." He looked down at her as her vision blurred.

"You're bleeding." He said, his eyes widening when he took in the blood dripping out of her nose.

"I don't feel… great." She mumbled before everything went black.

* * *

**1x19 – Provenance**

When her eyes opened, she found that she had a throbbing headache.

"Ow." She mumbled, pressing a hand to her forehead as she sat up.

She looked around to see Dean sitting there.

"You all right?" he asked, sounding concerned.

"I'm… I… where am I? Better yet, when am I?" she asked, squinting.

"It's been about eight months since I last saw you at that orchard." He said.

Elena looked at him

"See, I told you that you would defeat the scarecrow." She said, wincing as she tried to stand.

She stumbled backwards and he stood to catch her.

"I think you need to take a break." He said.

"I need to get back to my own time." she shot back.

"And that is…?" he asked.

She sighed and sat back on the bed.

"About four years from now." She said, rubbing her head as she tried to heal herself of her headache.

"Well… you're getting closer." Dean said.

She looked at him and sighed heavily.

"That was the first time I've ever done it by myself, gone through time. Now I know why it's so hard." She said.

"Do you need some water?" he asked.

"That would be great, thanks." She nodded.

He stood and grabbed a bottle of water, handing it to her. The door suddenly opened and Sam came walking in.

"Hey, I got the provenances from Sarah." He said, holding a bunch of papers as they looked back at him.

"Whoa." He said when he saw her.

"Hi." She said, wondering if he would recognize her when the last time saw her, he was six.

"I recognize you. I know you, somehow." He said.

"I don't know, Sammy…" Dean began.

"You're the girl with the angel." He said.

Elena's eyes widened at his remarkable memory. But if he could remember what happened when he was six, how could he not remember her four years from now? Something strange was going on. She had to get back to her own time so that she could figure out what it was.

"I have to go." she said, standing up.

"You can't, you just passed out on me." Dean said.

"I can't stay here. I have to leave. This is… wrong. Really wrong. Something is going bad and I have to figure out what it is." She said, starting for the door.

"Who are you?" Sam asked.

"She's from our future. I don't even know your name." Dean said.

She turned back to look at them.

"You can't know my name." she replied, turning away and running out.

She could hear them following her but she stopped in the middle of the parking lot and concentrated on the motel room as hard as she could. Her eyes slid shut and she felt her body tingling once again.

* * *

**2x02 – Everybody Loves a Clown**

This time she landed easier, her eyes flying open. She was standing in Bobby's junkyard behind a large broken down truck. She could hear voices.

"You were right." It was Sam.

She remained hidden.

"About what?" Dean's gruff voice asked.

"About me and dad. I'm sorry that the last time I was with him I tried to pick a fight. I'm sorry that I spent most of my life angry at him. I mean, for all I know he died thinking that I hate him. So you're right. What I'm doing right now, it's too little. It's too late." Sam said, sounding like he was about to break down. "I miss him, man. And I feel guilty as hell. And I'm not all right. Not at all. But neither are you. That much I know."

There was a loaded silence as Dean didn't answer. Elena sighed. John must have just died. That's where she was in their timeline.

"I'll let you get back to work." Sam said sadly and she heard him walk off towards Bobby's house.

Suddenly she heard a smash and she ran out, panicked. She saw Dean slamming a crowbar into the wrecked Impala over and over again, his face red and anger in his face. Elena just stood there, watching as he did so. When he finally let it clatter to the ground, she saw that there were tears in his eyes and his lip was trembling. That was when he noticed that she was there. He turned and stared at her for a moment before starting forward.

"Dean…" she said, holding her hands up as he backed her into a car.

"Did you know?" he demanded, glaring at her.

"I…" she said, looking up at him as he loomed over her.

"Did you know?!" he yelled.

She bit her lip and nodded. He let out a sharp breath as he glared at her.

"Dean… I couldn't tell you." she began.

"Why the hell not?" he shouted, still in her face.

Tears were still in his eyes as he did so.

"Because you couldn't stop it. It was going to happen. It had to happen." She said, looking down at her feet.

His hands were on either side of her head on the truck that he backed her into.

"I don't care. I could have tried… he's my… was my…" He said, breaking off as she heard the lump in his throat.

She looked up to see one lonely tear run down his cheek.

"I'm so sorry, Dean." She said, reaching up to touch his cheek, damning the consequences.

He shook his head and attempted to back away from her.

"Hey." She pulled him back towards her.

She put both hands on his cheeks and made him look at her.

"I'm sorry." Elena said again before she wrapped her arms around him.

He stood stiff in her arms for a moment before burying his face in her hair and allowing more tears to escape.

"He told me I might have to kill Sammy." He said.

Elena pulled away with a furrowed brow.

"Your dad?" she said, confused as she'd never heard this before.

"He said that I would have to save him… and if I couldn't… I would have to kill him."

She shook her head.

"No, Dean. You won't have to kill Sam. He's wrong, okay? You will save him. You will save him a lot. But you won't kill him, I promise." She breathed.

He stared down at her.

"Why do I trust you?" he asked, searching her face.

"Because you were meant to." She said simply.

His hand came up and stroked her cheek and, for the first time, she remembered that she hadn't been held in his arms like this since she became invisible. It didn't matter that it was a younger version of Dean. It felt so amazingly right. But she still wasn't expecting it when his lips descending onto hers. She responded instantly, unable to think of anything else. His arms wrapped around her back and pulled her closer. Their kiss was passionate and filled with emotion. She felt the wetness from his eyes falling onto her cheek. When Elena realized what was happening, she pushed him away.

"I shouldn't have done that." she said, looking at his chest.

"Why not? It felt… good." Dean admitted.

She looked up at him.

"Because it's too soon. I have to go." she said pushing him off of her and sliding away from him.

"But wait…" he began.

"Everything will get better, Dean. I promise. I have to go." she said, turning to run off.

* * *

**3x11 – Mystery Spot**

This time, she didn't land so gently. In fact, she collapsed on her hands and knees and began to spit up blood.

"Hey, are you okay?" a voice said as someone ran up to her.

She sat up, wiping her mouth as she looked up at the man in the business suit.

"Oh… hello. You are… well this is a surprise." He said, the corners of his mouth turning up.

"Do I know you?" she asked, wondering where she was now.

He smirked at her and helped her stand.

"You are from the future, cupcake." He said, his eyes sparkling with amusement.

Her eyes narrowed at him.

"Gabriel?" she sighed, staring at him.

He snapped his fingers and he looked like the annoying archangel that she knew so well.

"So you do know me. That's nice to know. You are hopping through time and that means that you have got your abilities. Damn I love it when a plan of mine comes together. It gives me something to look forward to in the future." He said with a cocky grin.

"Yeah, that's all fine and good except that I have to get back to my future and I can't." she said.

"Oh, I can help you out with that." he said.

"Well thank God." She sighed, wincing at the metallic taste of blood in her mouth.

"I said I can, sweetheart. But… I won't."

She turned to glare at him, not believing what she was hearing.

"You're not gonna help me back to my own time?" she demanded.

"If I know myself at all, and I like to think that I know myself quite well, future me knows exactly what you're going through right now. And future me wants it to happen. Think of it as… training. Jumping through time is a great thing once you get it down. If you can make it back to your time on your own, well that's pretty damn powerful." Past Gabriel said.

"Oh I could punch now you and future you in the face right now." She snapped.

"Here, I'll give you a little bit of my mojo to help you." he said, reaching out.

When he touched her, she felt fully rejuvinated. She stared at him but his eyes slid past her to look at something else. She turned in time to see Sam and Dean walking in the other direction. Suddenly a large piece of furniture came crashing down on Dean.

"Gotta go, I have a Tuesday to start over again." He said, winking at her before disappearing.

She groaned and looked around, sighing. Then she closed her eyes and did it all over again.

* * *

**3x16 – No Rest For the Wicked**

She was standing outside of a house. There didn't seem to be anything wrong with it until she heard the growling and barking. It sounded familiar, too familiar. She walked up to the house slowly, looking in the window. Sam and Dean were in there. So was a blonde. She watched as her eyes suddenly flipped to white and she gasped. It was Lilith. The front door suddenly slammed open as the growling got louder and she turned to see scratches on the porch where the hellhound ran in. Before she could go to it, the door slammed shut and locked. Elena ran back to the window and was forced to watch. She couldn't stop this. She knew exactly what was going on and she was going to have to sit back and let it happen.

Lilith was holding Sam against the wall and Dean down on the desk with invisible restraints. Her mouth was moving but Elena couldn't hear what she was saying. Suddenly she opened the door and smirked at Dean before yelling.

"Sic 'em, boy!" Elena heard it this time.

Tears filled Elena's eyes and her hands clapped to her face as she watched this happen. The hellhound dragged Dean off of the desk and began to rip him up as he screamed loudly. Tears ran down her face as she knew how much pain he was in. Lilith was simply laughing as he contined to scream. Elena ran to the door and blew it open with her mind, not caring about the consequences of running in on this scene. She ran to the door and found it closed. There was no more screaming and growling.

"I said, back!" she heard Lilith yell, sounding panicked.

"I don't think so." she heard Sam reply, his voice dark and angry.

Elena finally slammed the doors open and Sam turned to look at her as the black smoke streamed out of the vessel's mouth. It disappeared and the blonde collapsed to the ground.

"Dean…" Sam said, stumbling to his body and collapsing next to it.

Elena watched with tears running down her face as he cried over Dean.

"Help me!" he yelled at her.

She stumbled forward and knelt next to him, pulling him away from the body.

"I can't, Sam. I'm sorry." She said, not wanting to look down at Dean's body.

She had to let this happen. Because in four months, she would meet Dean, fresh out of hell, in a gas station.

"Please…" Sam cried.

Elena turned him around and gathered her in his arms.

"Shh… Sam…" she said, cradling his head in her hand.

"He's my brother. My brother." he whimpered, tears running down his cheeks and falling onto her jacket.

"I know." She said simply, knowing that there was nothing else that she could say.

"Elena…" she turned to see Gabriel standing there.

Sam looked up at him with a confused look.

"You found me." she sighed with relief, still holding Sam.

"We have to go." he said.

"But…" she began.

"Come on." he said, reaching out to take her hand.

She stood up, looking back at Sam sadly as he stared up at her with his soulful eyes.

"I'm so sorry." She murmured before they disappeared.

They reappeared in the same motel in present day.

"So I can move through time now. On my own. It gives me a helluva headache though." She sighed.

Gabriel nodded, looking at the door.

"If Dean and Sam met me before, why don't they remember?" she asked, looking at Gabriel.

"Because I made them forget." He said simply.

Elena stared at him.

"Why?" she asked.

"Because they weren't meant to remember you. They didn't know you when they first met you at the gas station and then at the motel. They weren't supposed to, either." He explained.

"Then why did I go through all of that? Why did I get lost in their timeline?" Elena questioned.

"Because Michael set it up." He said, looking at her.

"Michael?" she said, confused.

"He was trying to prove a point. Free will is just an illusion and all that." he explained.

Elena stared at him.

"He wanted to show me that I couldn't stop it. I couldn't stop any of it. I couldn't stop Dean's father from raising them like he did and being the way he was. I couldn't stop Dean from turning into a manwhore. I couldn't stop his and Sam's relationship from falling apart when Sam went to school. I couldn't stop John from dying and I couldn't stop Dean from being sent to hell." She listed, realizing that she went to the places that she went for a reason.

It wasn't by chance. It was on purpose. Gabriel nodded, indicating that she was right on point.

"He wants to tell me that I couldn't stop those things from happening so I can't stop anything in the future from happening either."

She leaned against the wall and shook her head.

"But why take me to the time when we met when I was young? That didn't show me anything." She said, looking at him.

"I'm not exactly sure. My brothers have many different reasons for doing many different things." Gabriel said.

Elena bit her lip and let her head fall back.

"He wanted me to interact with Sam and Dean. That's why he let me be visible." She realized.

"Most likely, yes." The archangel nodded.

"So, when I walk back in there." she said, pointing at the door.

"You'll likely be invisible again." He said.

She shook her head and fought the urge to cry.

"I am so… tired. I am tired of these stupid beings messing with my life. I just want it to stop. Why can't they just… let me be?" she cried, failing as tears began to fall down her face.

Gabriel sighed and looked at her.

"I don't know what to say about that, Elena. I don't know that there's anything to say. But I can say that one good thing that came out of this." he said.

"What is that?" she asked skeptically, wiping her cheeks.

He grinned and snapped his fingers, the door opening. She sighed and followed him inside, steeling herself for the fact that Dean and Sam wouldn't be able to see her once again.

"Hello boys. I come bearing Elena, she's back, safe and sound." Gabriel said, gesturing to her even though they couldn't see her.

"Oh… uh… thanks." Sam said, nodding at him.

"I see that Cassie is still having his beauty sleep. Oh well. We'll catch him up later. You see, Elena, when I tell you that I made them forget you, I lied. Well I didn't. I made them forget you but I sort of didn't take the memories as much as hid them in a tiny little box that they would never be able to find. But now that this has happened, well there's no reason for that box to be locked anymore so…" Gabriel started forward to touch their foreheads.

"Whoa what are you doing?" Dean backed away.

"Trust me, you're gonna thank me." he said, succeeding in touching their heads this time.

Elena watched as their eyes widened and they both gasped, stumbling backwards.

"What the…" Dean began.

"Elena?" Sam said.

And she knew they remembered. They exchanged wide-eyed looks before Dean looked at Gabriel.

"Could you do me a favor?" he asked.

"I thought I just did." Gabriel said with a smirk.

"Could you knock me out?" Dean requested, ignoring his snarky comeback.

Gabriel looked like Christmas had come early.

"If you insist." He said, his hand forming a fist.

"No, not like that! With your angelic thing!" Dean said.

"Dean, what…?" Sam began, confused by his 'favor'.

Gabriel looked as though he understood though.

"He wants alone time with his sweetheart. I taught Elena how to get in his head while he's dreaming." The archangel said.

Elena smiled slightly, suddenly cheered by the fact that Dean wanted to see her.

"Please, Gabriel?" she asked, walking forward.

He sighed and gestured for Dean to sit on the bed.

"Unless you want to have a headache later from collapsing on the ground." He said, shrugging.

Dean sighed and sat on the bed. Elena sat next to him, a smile on her face.

"See you in a while." Dean said to Sam before Gabriel pressed his finger to his head and he passed out onto the bed.

Elena immediately put her hands on his head and closed her eyes, delving into his mind.

* * *

She chose the beach this time. She was in a light blue off the shoulder t-shirt dress and her feet were bare. She looked out to see that the water was clear blue and beautiful.

"Lena?" she turned to see Dean standing there in a pair of jeans, no shirt, and no shoes.

"Dean." She said with a grin, her hair blowing in the light breeze as they faced each other.

He ran to her and gathered her in his arms, holding her tightly as he pressed his face into her neck.

"Thank you." he whispered as he let her down to look up at him.

"For what?" she asked, tilting her head to the side.

"For being there even when I had no idea who you were. When I was a dick sometimes." He said, stroking her cheek softly.

She sighed, wrapping her arms around his neck.

"I love you, Dean." She said softly, smiling at how happy she was that they were there even if it was just a dream.

"I love you too." He whispered back before capturing her lips in his and they collapsed to the sand, laughing.

In the dream, it wasn't the rough, coarse sand that she hated. It was soft and didn't get all over the place. They laid there, tangled in each other's arms.

"Does it bother you that I was seventeen when you were four?" he asked.

Elena laughed and propped herself up onto her elbow, looking at him.

"Like I told Cas, my last boyfriend was born in 1846. I'm pretty sure that age gaps don't bother me." she said with a grin.

He thought about it and shrugged, nodding.

"Does it bother you?" she asked, suddenly serious.

"No, not really. I mean, I never really thought about it before. You don't act like you're eighteen so…" he shrugged.

"You sure?" she asked.

"I'm more bothered by the fact that you almost left me to be sacrificed by the scarecrow god." He said, smirking at her.

"You figured it out, didn't you?" she asked, trailing her hand over his chest.

"I did indeed." He said.

Elena suddenly got a mischeivous look in her eye.

"What?" he asked.

"Well… we're just on a nice romantic beach, no Sam around to interrupt us..." She shrugged, trailing off.

"What did you have in mind?" he said with a smirk.

"Let's make out." she said, grinning as she did her best imitation of a teenager.

"Whoa… just make out?" he said, looking unhappy by this turn of events.

"Dean, you, more than anyone should know the product of dream sex. Do you really want that to happen in a room with Sam, Cas, and Gabriel?" she asked, raising an eyebrow at him.

"Son of a bitch." He sighed, leaning his head back.

"So… make out?" she questioned, catching her lip between her teeth.

He looked up at her and grinned.

"Come here." He said, pulling her on top of him and letting their lips meet. She immediately straddled his hips and began kissing him like there was no tomorrow.

* * *

**Author's Note: Sorry it took me so long to get this chapter updated. It took me a while to get it all together and figure out which scenes from past episodes that I wanted to use. It was a long process. I hope you liked it! I liked writing it! Please review!**

**Also, I know that this whole Elena invisible thing might be getting annoying or whatever but I have a reason for keeping her invisible. A very big reason. Trust me. **


	21. Chapter 21

**Disclaimer: I do not own TVD or Supernatural**

**Thanks to RHatch89, Dark Alana, Nyssandria, MrsMaeveSalvatoreMikaelson, Dark-Supernatural-Angel, DrawingMyHeartOut, slayerdiaries, xxPaige23xx, diehardromantic, chiwi, Hollywood17, imusic247, and the two guests for reviewing**

**A few things:**

**1. I wanted to apologize to all of you. It was not my intention to stop focusing so much on Sam. I didn't even realize that I was doing it. In penance, I am making this chapter have some Sam/Elena moments. I'm sorry again.**

**2. To be honest, guys. If you want something to happen in this story speak up and tell me. I want to let you see things that you like and I will try my best to include it. I know that a lot of you are asking for Katherine's presence and I promise that I am not ignoring you. I am trying my best to figure out a way to get her in the story but I haven't gotten any ideas yet. I want you to tell me any ideas that you have. I like to have reader participation. So throw your ideas at me.**

**3. Elena's outfit is on my profile. One outfit for the whole chapter.**

* * *

Elena's eyes fluttered open slowly as she withdrew from Dean's mind. He'd fallen asleep in the dream, funnily enough. It was peaceful as they watched the sun set over the water. It was enough to make any normal person fall asleep. When she looked around, she realized it was nighttime. Cas was still passed out on the other bed and Sam was asleep on the couch. Gabriel was nowhere to be seen. She sighed and sat up, walking to the window. She reached out and touched it, her hand not even leaving a print as she did so. She was practically a ghost and she was damn tired of it. When she turned her head to look at Sam who was sleeping on the couch.

"Hey." she murmured, kneeling next to the couch.

She looked around, wondering if it would be creepy if she tried to establish the dream connection with Sam. Her hand reached out hesitantly, touching his forehead. A flash of a park went through her mind and she realized that it was safe to go into his dream. When she was standing in a green park, she turned to see Sam standing next to her.

"Hi, Sam." she said, looking up at him.

"Hey, Elena." he said, looking back down at her.

"Sorry about this. I just miss talking to you. I hope it's not creepy." She said, looking down at her hands.

He smiled over at her.

"It's not creepy." He said, putting his arm around her shoulders and pulling her in for a hug.

She smiled as they began walking through the park.

"Where are we?" she asked.

He sighed and looked around.

"This was the park close to my house in Palo Alto. I came here all the time… with Jess." He said.

Elena turned and looked at him.

"I'm sorry, Sam. I shouldn't have come into your dreams. This is private." Elena said apologetically.

"No, it's nice not to be alone here for once." He said, coming to a bench and sitting on it.

"So is this your favorite dream that you have?" she asked, sitting next to him and tilting her head to the side.

"One of them, yeah. It's just… Jess and I were here the day before Dean came to get me. It's really the last happy memory I have of her."

Elena sighed and looked around.

"It is beautiful. And I'm sure that Jess looked beautiful here." Elena said, leaning back and looking up at the clear blue sky.

"Actually…" Sam said, tugging her arm to get her to look back at him.

He pointed over at a couple by the trees that were only about fifteen feet away from them. Elena immediately recognized a much younger Sam. The girl with him was gorgeous. Her long blonde hair was curly and she was wearing a pair of jeans and a simple light pink tank top with matching flip flops. She was settled between his legs as he sat against the tree and her head was leaning back against his chest.

"Sam…" Elena murmured, looking over at him.

"This is a memory, you should have kicked me out." she said, nudging him.

"Nah, it's okay." He said, smiling slightly as he watched.

A delighted laugh filled the air and she looked to see Jess turning to kiss Sam.

"I'm sorry that you lost her, Sam. I can see how much you love her." she sighed, reaching out to take his hand.

"Thank you." he said with a smile.

They both felt a jerk and Elena was yanked out of Sam's mind roughly as she looked up to see Dean shaking him in the dark motel room. There was a little bit of light peeking through the window and she knew that the sun would be rising soon. She looked over to see Cas sitting up.

"Hey." She said, jumping up and running to him.

"How are you feeling?" Elena asked, looking into his eyes.

"A little bit better. But not much." he said, putting a hand to his head.

"Well, a little better is better than nothing." She sighed, helping him stand up.

"We got a call from Bobby. There's a case nearby. Cas, you coming?" Dean said as Sam stood up.

"I'll go where Elena goes and I'm assuming that she'll be going with you." Cas nodded.

"What is it?" Sam asked.

"Oh you're not even going to believe this one." Dean said with a smirk.

* * *

"So... you were the one who found the bodies?" Sam asked.

"There was blood everywhere...and... other stuff... I think Alice was already dead." The teary roommate said, shaking her head as she sat on the couch.

"But Russell wasn't?" he questioned.

"I think he was, mostly, except... he was still sort of...chewing a little." She said with a disgusted look.

"Oh." Sam grimaced and looked over at Cas, who had accompanied him to the apartment where the couple died.

Elena had gone with Dean to the coroner's office.

"How do two people even do that… eat each other to death?" the roommate said, her eyes wide.

"That's a really good question. Now, the last few days, did you notice her acting erratically?" Sam questioned.

"How do you mean?" she asked, looking confused.

"I mean, did she seem... unusually hostile, aggressive?" he suggested.

"No way. Alice never drank, never even swore. She was a nice girl. And I'm talking, like, a nice girl… like she still had her promise ring, if you know what I mean."

"She was a virgin?" Sam said, his eyebrows raising slightly.

"No premarital. I used to wonder how she did it. I mean, you know, didn't do it. It was her first date in months. She was so excited." The roommate said sadly.

"Apparently, they were both pretty excited." Sam nodded, writing everything on his notebook as Cas simply stared at the girl.

* * *

Elena looked up as Sam and Cas walked in. Dean was lounging on the bed and she was next to him.

"How'd it go?" Dean asked Sam.

"Um... no EMF, no sulfur. Ghost possession and demonic possession are both probably out." Sam answered, handing Dean a bag with a burger in it.

"Hmm. That's where I was puttin' my money." Dean said, shrugging as he opened the bag.

"Nope." Sam said shook his head, plopping down at the table and opening his own bag as Cas sat in the other chair, simply watching.

"I feel something weird about this town. And it's not just the bodies that were chomped on, Cas. There's something here." Elena said.

He simply nodded, agreeing with her.

Dean rubbed his eyes, sighing.

"Well, then what, then? Oh, dude! At the coroner's… you didn't see these bodies. I mean, these two started eating a-and they just... kept going. I mean, their stomachs were full. Like… like... Thanksgiving-dinner full. Talk about co-dependent." He said with a grimace.

"Well... I mean, we got our feelers out. Not much more we can do tonight." Sam sighed, taking a bit of his salad. "I'm just gonna go through some files."

Elena leaned her head back and readied herself for a night of watching Sam research and Dean staring around sullenly until he fell asleep and they were able to dream together.

* * *

As they walked through the hospital, Sam seemed a little fidgety. Elena was with them but Cas was wandering around the town to see if he could find anything.

"You okay?" Dean asked, seeing Sam's slightly pale face as she looked after a bald man in a suit with a briefcase.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Sam nodded as they walked into the morgue.

"Agent Marley, you just can't stay away." Dr. Corman said as Dean walked in.

"Heard you tagged another double suicide." Dean shrugged, grinning at the older man.

"Well, I just finished closing them up." The doctor said, pointing over his shoulder.

"Dr. Corman…" Dean gestured to Sam. "… this is my partner, special agent Cliff."

"Agent Cliff. I've finished my prelims. I pulled the organ sets and sent off the tox samples." Dr. Corman nodded at Sam.

"Great. You mind if we take a look at the bodies?" Sam asked, smiling politely.

"Not at all. But like I said their good-and-plenties are already tupperwared." he said, opening the fridge to show them the boxes.

"Super." Sam said.

"Leave the keys with Marty up front. And please, gentlemen... refrigerate after opening..." Dr. Corman said, throwing Dean the keys before turning to walk out.

Elena stood over the table as they began pulling all of the internal organs that were boxed up. They sighed and got to work, pulling out all of the intestines to get a good look at them.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Wait a second." Sam took one of the hearts that Dean was looking over and held it up next to the one that he was holding.

"These hearts both have identical marks. Check this out. It looks like some kind of letter. Oh, no." he looked up at Dean with wide eyes.

"What?" Dean said, narrowing his eyes.

"I think it's Enochian." He said hesitantly.

"You mean like angel scratches? So you think it's like the tagging on our ribs?" Dean asked, surprised.

This was not what he was expecting to find on the hearts.

"Dean, I don't know." Sam shrugged, putting them back in the boxes.

"Ah, hell." Dean sighed, pulling his phone out.

"Cas, it's Dean. Yeah… room 31C, basement level... St. James medical center." He said, walking forward.

Elena couldn't fight a smile as Cas appeared right in front of Dean, inches away, still on the phone.

"I'm there now." The angel said, staring at Dean.

"Yeah, I get that." Dean nodded, used to the angel's strange behavior.

"I'm gonna hang up now." Cas informed him after a moment of silence.

Elena let out a laugh at their awkward behavior.

"Right." Dean said, snapping his phone closed.

Sam explained his theory as Cas walked to the hearts and picked them up after putting gloves on at Dean's insistence.

"You're right, Sam. These are angelic marks. I imagine you'll find similar marks on the other couples' hearts as well." Cas said, looking between the hearts.

"So, what are they? I mean, what do they mean?" Sam questioned as they put the boxes away.

"It's a mark of union. This man and woman were intended to mate." Cas explained.

"Okay, but who put them there?" Dean asked.

"Well, your people call them Cupid." Cas said, facing them as he pulled off the medical gloves.

"A what?" Sam said, furrowing his brow.

"What human myth has mistaken for Cupid is actually a lower order of angel. Technically it's a cherub, third-class." The angel said.

"Cherub?" Dean scoffed, looking unimpressed.

"Yeah, they're all over the world. There are dozens of them." Cas nodded.

"You mean the little flying fat kid in diapers?" the older brother said, smirking.

"They're not incontinent." He said, shaking his head at Dean.

"Okay, anyway. So, what you're saying…"

"What I'm saying is a Cupid has gone rogue and we have to stop him… before he kills again." Cas cut Sam off.

"Naturally." Sam said, nodding with an extremely bitchy face.

"Of course we do." Dean said, looking at Cas with an understanding look that made the angel stare back strangely.

* * *

Elena felt strange, sitting next to Dean in the booth while he and Sam ordered food and Cas simply sat there as well. When the waitress brought them food, Dean a cheeseburger and Sam a salad, she looked up to see Cas eyeing Dean's plate. She tilted her head to the side, wondering if he was all right.

"So, what, you just happen to know he likes the Cosmos at this place?" Dean asked, picking up the ketchup.

"This place is a nexus of human reproduction. It's exactly the kind of…" Cas watched closely as Dean put ketchup on his cheeseburger. "… of garden the Cupid will come to… to pollinate."

Dean put his cheeseburger down, shaking his head.

"Wait a minute. You're not hungry?" Sam scoffed, staring at Dean.

Elena turned to look at him.

"No. What? I'm not hungry." Dean shrugged.

Sam's look of concern matched Elena's

"Then you're not gonna finish that?" Cas took Dean's plate and set it in front of himself, surprising all three of them.

"What is going on?" Elena murmured, looking around.

Cas stopped just as he was lifting the burger to his mouth.

"He's here." He said, setting the burger down without taking a bite of it.

"Where? I don't see anything." Sam asked, looking around he restaurant.

Elena noticed a subtle wind and saw a couple across the room look at each other as if they'd just noticed the other person. They began to make out.

"There." Cas nodded towards the couple.

"You mean the same-side-of-the-booth couple over there?" Dean scoffed.

"Meet me in the back." Cas said, disappeared suddenly.

Elena looked around, wondering how no one ever seemed to notice when Cas disappeared except for them.

* * *

"Cas, where is he?" Sam asked as they walked into the back.

The angel was standing there with his hand up as he stared into blank space.

"I have him tethered. Zoda kama mahrana. Manifest yourself." He chanted.

Nothing happened and they all looked around, confused.

"Cas, are you feeling all right?" she asked, concerned that he was still a bit off from their extended trip.

"So, where is he?" Dean questioned before Cas could answer her.

A chubby naked man suddenly appeared and grabbed Dean in a hug from behind.

"Here I am!" he exclaimed, looking thrilled.

Elena's eyes widened and she let out a startled laugh as Dean looked terrified.

"Help!" he choked out.

"Oh, help is on the way. Yes, it is. Yes, it is." Cupid said, bouncing up and down.

Dean stilled in his arms, hoping that if he stopped struggling, the man would let him go. Luckily, he caught sight of Cas and his face lit up even more.

"Hello, you!" he exclaimed, dropping Dean and walking to Cas.

He picked him up, hugging him.

"Ooh. Mmm." Cas grunted as he cracked a few bones.

"This is Cupid?" Dean said, looking like he was ready to shoot something as Elena's hands covered her mouth to hold back the insane giggles that were coming.

"Yes." Cas wheezed, rolling his eyes.

Cupid put him down and turned to look at Sam.

"And look at you, huh?" he said, grinning.

"No." Sam refused, shaking his head as he turned away.

Dean stumbled out of the way as Cupid took off towards him as if he was afraid that he would be hugged again. Cupid appeared in front of Sam and grabbed him in a hug as well.

"Yes! Yes, yes, yes!" he said, swaying Sam back and forth.

That was it for Elena, her eyes were watering as her peals of laughter filled the air. Seeing a naked man forcefully hug three of the toughest men she knew was hilarious in itself so she couldn't help it.

"Is this a fight? Are we in a fight?" Dean demanded, sounding panicked.

"This is... their handshake." Castiel sighed, gesturing to him.

"I don't like it." Dean said, also seeming traumatized.

"No one likes it." Cas agreed, shaking his head.

Cupid suddenly caught sight of Elena and grinned at her.

"Can I hug you too? You seem like a hugger." He said, his hands out wide.

"Only if you put some clothes on." Elena warned.

"I don't wear clothes." He informed her.

"And I don't hug naked men." She shot back.

"I'll get you later." He said with a happy smile before turning to Dean and Cas.

"Mmm. What can I do for you?" Cupid asked.

"Why are you doing this?" Cas demanded.

"Doing what?" he said, giggling happily.

"Your targets… the ones you've marked… they're slaughtering each other." Castiel said angrily.

"What? They are?" his face fell and he looked like a kicked puppy.

Cas squinted suspiciously at him.

"Listen, birthday suit, we know, okay? We know you been flittin' around, popping people with your poison arrow, making them murder each other!" Dean snapped.

Elena watched as Cupid's face got more and more devastated. She was getting the feeling that this wasn't their guy.

"What we don't know is why." Cas continued.

"You think that I…" his lip began to tremble and she found herself feeling really bad for him. "Well, uh... I don't know what to say." Cupid began to cry, walking past Dean who shuddered away from him.

"You didn't have to be mean." She sighed, unwillingly walking to him and wrapping her arm around his shoulders, trying to ignore his nakedness.

Cupid buried his face in her shoulder, crying. The boys all stared at him with wide eyes.

"Should... should somebody maybe... go talk to him?" Sam suggested.

"Yeah, that's a good idea. Give 'em hell, Cas." Dean said, pushing the angel forward as neither of them could see that Elena was comforting him.

Sam patted the angel's arm in encouragement.

"Um... look. We didn't mean to, um..." Cas glanced back at Dean and Sam, who both gave him thumbs up. "…hurt your feelings."

Cupid whirled around, grabbing Cas into a tight hug.

"Ugh!" Cas grunted, looking exasperated.

"Love is more than a word to me, you know. I love love. I love it! And if that's wrong, I don't want to be right!" Cupid said happily, squeezing him tightly before pulling away.

"Yes, yes. Of course. I, uh..." Cas patted his back before rolling his eyes as Elena looked on with an amused look. "… I have no idea what you're saying." Cas said, looking a little traumatized himself.

"I was just on my appointed rounds. Whatever my targets do after that that's nothing to do with me. I-I was following my orders. Please brother. Read my mind. Read my mind, you'll see." Cupid said desperately, trying to clear his name.

Cas reached out a hand and touched his forehead.

"He's telling the truth." He confirmed.

"Jiminy Christmas. Thank you." the man sighed, looking relieved.

"Wait, wait, you said… you said you were just following orders?" Dean asked, backtracking.

"Mm-hm." Cupid nodding, sounding proud.

"Whose orders?" the older brother questioned.

"Whose?" Cupid laughed. "Heaven, silly. Heaven."

"Why does heaven care if Harry meets Sally?" Dean scoffed.

"Oh, mostly they don't. You know, certain bloodlines, certain destinies. Oh, like yours." Cupid said, gesturing to him.

Elena's eyes widened and she shook her head, trying to get Cupid to stop. Cas looked at her strangely as she made motions for him to stop talking.

"What?" Sam said, already narrowing his eyes at him.

"Yeah, the union of John and Mary Winchester… very big deal upstairs, top priority arrangement. Mm." Cupid nodded, not paying attention to Elena.

"Stop talking now." She said, waving her hands and shaking her head.

"Are you saying that you fixed-up our parents?" Dean said gruffly, his hands already clenching into fists.

"Well, not me, but... yeah. Well, it wasn't easy, either. Ooh, they couldn't stand each other at first. But when we were done with them… perfect couple." Cupid said happily, finally noticing Elena' s motions.

"Perfect?" Dean said, sounding like he was about to explode.

"Yeah." Cupid nodded, understanding that something was wrong but still smiling.

"They're dead!" he bellowed, causing them all to step back a little at his red face.

"I'm sorry, but... the orders were very clear. You and Sam needed to be born. Your parents were just, uh... meant to be." Cupid began to sing. "A match made in heaven… heaven!"

Dean suddenly reared back and punched Cupid. The angel didn't react at all, just looking confused. But there was a crunching sound as several bones in Dean's hands broke.

"Son of a bitch!" he whimpered.

Elena sighed and shook her head, walking to him and touching his hand to heal it. Cupid was gone by the time they looked back.

"I tried to warn him." she said.

"Where is he? Where'd he go?!" Dean shouted, turning in circles.

"I believe you upset him." Cas said, shaking his head at Dean's frustration and lashing out.

"Upset him?!" he said incredulously.

"Dean. Enough!" Sam snapped, walking towards him.

"What?" Dean demanded.

"You just punched a Cupid!" Sam yelled.

"I punched a dick!" he growled back.

Sam looked back at Cas, who looked at Elena, who was as worried as they were. Dean was not acting like himself.

"Are we gonna talk to you about what's been up with you lately or not?" Sam said, staring at him.

Dean looked back at him for a moment.

"Or not." He shot back, turning to slam his way out of the room.

* * *

"You said you wanted to hear about any other weird ones." Dr. Corman said, looking up at Sam as he walked in.

"Okay." Sam nodded.

Dr. Corman walked to a gurney and pulled a sheet off of the corpse. The belly was extremely, grossy distended.

"Lester Finch. Pulled his records. Looks like this gentleman used to weigh 400 pounds or so, till he got a gastric bypass, which brought down his weight considerably. But then for some reason, last night, he decided to go on a twinkie binge." Dr. Corman explained, grimacing down at him.

"So, he died from a twinkie binge?" Sam asked, sounding disgusted.

"Well, after he blew out the band around his stomach, he filled it up till it burst. When he could no longer swallow, he started jamming the cakes down his gullet with a... with a toilet brush, like he was ramrodding a cannon." The doctor said, wincing even as he spoke.

Sam stared at him for a moment.

"So, what do you make of it?" he asked.

"I'd say that it was a very peculiar thing to do." Dr. Corman said, nodding down at the body before he took a few gulps from his flask.

* * *

"Hey. So, uh, this guy was not marked by Cupid, but his death is definitely suspicious." Sam said as he walked out of the hospital.

He was on the phone with Dean.

"Yeah, well, I just went through the police blotter, and counting him, that's eight suicides since Wednesday and nineteen overdoses… that's way out of the seasonal batting average." Dean replied.

"Yeah, if there's a pattern here, it ain't just love. It's a hell of a lot bigger than we thought." He sighed, stopping at the curb.

He rubbed his temple like he had a headache.

"Yeah, all right. I'll see you in 10." Dean said.

"Yeah, okay."

He hung up the phone and turned to see the same bald man that he saw at the hospital the day before holding a briefcase once again. He winced as he heard the man's heartbeat. Without his permission, his legs carried him forward and he followed the man down the alley. He grunted as Sam shoved him against the wall, holding the demon-killing knife to his throat.

"I know what you are, damn it." Sam yelled, cutting his cheek as the demon yelled out. "I could smell you."

"Winchester." The demon growled.

They began to fight and Sam eventually kicked him in the arm, causing him to drop the briefcase. Sam breathed heavily as he watched him run off. When he looked at the knife, he saw that it had the demon's blood dripping off. He shook his head and cleaned it off quickly.

* * *

"What the hell does a demon got to do with this, anyway?" Dean asked as they stood in front of the table looking down at the briefcase.

Elena was getting some weird vibes from it. She was just a few moments away from going to find Cas, wherever he'd disappeared off to.

"Believe me, I got no idea." Sam sighed, rubbing his forehead.

Elena stared at him with a concerned look.

"You okay?" Dean said, looking over at him, their mini-fight.

"Yeah, yeah. I'll be all right." Sam nodded, swallowing hard.

"Let's crack her open. What's the worst that could happen, right?" Dean shrugged, looking at the suitcase.

Elena shook her head, wondering how these boys managed to be so smart and yet so stupid at the same time. She looked at the bedside table and sent the paperweight sitting on it flying by their heads. It whizzed by and slammed into the wall, shattering into a million pieces.

"What the hell?" Dean said, staring at it.

Elena snapped her fingers and the pieces were gone. She smiled as they looked around.

"I guess we're not supposed to open it." Sam said, looking at Dean with a smirk at Elena's obvious scolding.

"Idiots." She sighed.

"It's a human soul. It's starting to make sense." Cas said as he appeared in the room.

They all looked to see him eating a burger. Elena tilted her head to the side curiously as Dean and Sam looked shocked.

"Now, what about that makes sense?" Sam asked.

"And when did you start eating?" Dean questioned.

"Exactly. My hunger… it's a clue, actually." The angel said, nodding at them before he took another bite.

"For what?" Sam and Dean asked at the same time.

"This town is not suffering from some love-gone-wrong effect. It's suffering from hunger. Starvation, to be exact… specifically... famine." Cas informed them.

"Famine? As… as in the Horseman?" Sam asked, his eyes wide.

"Great. That's freaking great." Dean snapped as he began pacing.

Cas just stared at them as he continued to eat.

"I thought famine meant starvation, like as in, you know, food." Sam said, confused.

"Yes. Absolutely. But not just food. I mean, everyone seems to be starving for something… sex, attention, drugs, love..." Cas said.

"Well, that explains the puppy-lovers that Cupid shot up." Dean pointed out.

"Right. The cherub made them crave love, and then Famine came, and made them rabid for it." Cas confirmed.

"Okay, but what about you? I mean, since when do angels secretly hunger for White Castle?" Dean asked, gesturing to him.

"It's my vessel… Jimmy. His, uh, appetite for red meat has been touched by Famine's effect." The angel explained.

"So, Famine just rolls into town and everybody goes crazy?" Dean asked.

"And then will come Famine riding on a black steed. He will ride into the land of plenty... " Cas recited. "... and great will be the Horseman's hunger, for he is hunger. His hunger will seep out and poison the air."

"Famine is hungry. He must devour the souls of his victims." Cas

"So, that's what was in the briefcase… the twinkie dude's soul?" Dean asked.

"Lucifer has sent his demons to care for Famine, to feed him, make certain he'll be ready." Cas nodded.

"Ready for what?" Sam asked.

"To march across the land."

Elena bit her lip as she leaned against the wall. There was one thing that was bothering her. She didn't find herself hungering for anything and, looking at Dean, there was nothing wrong with him either. So she just stood there, chewing on her lip as she wondered what this could possibly mean.

* * *

"Famine?" Dean confirmed again.

"Yes." Cas nodded, his mouth completely full as he sat on the bed.

"So, what, this whole town is just gonna eat, drink, and screw itself to death?" Sam asked from the bathroom where he was washing his face.

"We should stop it." Cas suggested.

"Yeah, that's a great idea. How?" Dean questioned.

"How did you stop the last Horseman you met?" the angel replied.

"War got his mojo from this ring." Dean said after realization struck him.

He walked to his jacket and pulled the ring out of the hidden pocket to hold it up.

"And after we cut it off, he just tucked tail and ran. And everybody that was affected, it was like they woke up out of a dream. You think Famine's got a class ring, too?" Dean asked.

"I know he does." Cas confirmed.

"Well, okay. Let's track him down and get to chopping." Dean said, standing up.

"Yeah." Cas said, eyeing his empty fast food bag sadly.

"What are you, the Hamburglar?" Dean asked, noticing Cas' sadness.

Elena felt that something was wrong and she looked back at the bathroom. When she walked to it, Sam's labored breathing reached her ears.

"I've developed a taste for ground beef." He sighed.

"Well, have you even tried to stop it?" the older Winchester suggested.

"I'm an angel. I can stop anytime I want." Cas said defensively.

"Cas?" Elena said, watching as Sam hunched over the sink as if he was in pain.

"Whatever. Sam, let's roll." Dean said, gesturing to the door.

"Dean...I, um... I can't. I can't go." Sam stammered, sounding not too great.

Elena backed out of the way as he walked to the door slowly.

"What do you mean?" Dean asked, turning back to see that his face was pale and he looked shaky.

"I think it got to me, Dean. I think I'm hungry for it..." Sam trailed off.

"Hungry for what?"

"You know." The younger brother said, sounding like he was in pain.

"Demon blood?" Dean realized, sounding frustrated.

Sam hung his head in shame.

"You got to be kidding me." he turned to Cas. "You got to get him out of here. You got to beam him to, like, Montana. Anywhere but here."

"It won't work. He's already infected. The hunger is just gonna travel with him." Cas said, staring at Sam warily.

"Well, then, what do we do?" Dean asked.

"You go cut that bastard's finger off." Sam said.

They looked at him for a moment before Dean nodded.

"You heard him." he said.

"But, Dean... before you go, you better... you better lock me down… but good." Sam suggested.

A few minutes later, Dean was cuffing Sam's hand to the bathroom sink and Elena was ranting.

"You're kidding me? You're going to go after a freaking Horseman and you don't want me to be there with you?" she ranted after Dean suggested that she stay there to watch Sam.

Only Cas could hear her and she could tell that he was concentrating on when he would get his next burger.

"All right, well, just hang in there. We'll be back as soon as we can." Dean said, looking down at his little brother.

"Fine, I'll stay but only cause I like Sam better than you right now!" she yelled as they walked out.

"Be careful. And... hurry." Sam said desperately.

Elena turned back to Sam and sighed before sitting on the edge of the bathtub.

"So… what do you want to talk about?" she asked, stretching her legs out and crossing one over the other.

* * *

"Hey, Marty. Is Dr. Corman around?" Dean asked as he and Cas walked into the morgue.

"You haven't heard?" Marty the coroner's assistant said, turning to look at him.

"Heard what?"

"Guy's been dry for the last 20 years, but this morning, he left work, went home, and drank himself to death." He sighed, pointing over his shoulder at a body covered in a sheet.

"It's Famine." Cas said, turning to Dean who rolled his eyes.

"Pardon?" Marty asked, confused.

"Would you give us a minute, please?" Dean requested, smiling at Marty before turning to Cas.

"Sure." Marty nodding.

"Thanks." He said politely.

"Crap! I really kind of liked this guy." He hissed once the man walked away.

"They haven't harvested his soul yet." Cas informed him.

"Well, if we want to play 'follow the soul' to get to Famine, our best shot starts with the doc, here." Dean said, looking over at the table with the doctor on it.

* * *

Elena looked over at Sam, who was gritting his teeth and staring dazedly around the room.

"If you want, I can knock you right out. One punch… maybe two… you'll be out like a light." She said, tilting her head to the side.

The room remained silent except for Sam's labored breathing.

"All right, I'll admit it wasn't that funny. How about… I tell you about the time that I fell off of a jungle gym. It sounds sad until you learn that I was sixteen." Elena said, letting out a light chuckle as she stared down at her shoes.

"E-Elena?" Sam choked out.

She turned with wide eyes to see him looking right at her.

"Sam?" she said, confused.

"Elena." he breathed, still looking at her.

"You can see me?" she said, shocked.

* * *

Dean was sitting outside of the hospital keeping watch when Cas appeared with another burger.

"Are you serious?" he said, looking at him with an incredulous look.

"These make me... very happy." Cas said, smiling happily as he took several bites.

"How many is that?" Dean asked, turning to look out the window.

"I lost count. It's in the low hundreds." The angel answered.

Dean let out a low whistle.

"What I don't understand is... where is your hunger, Dean?" Cas asked, looking forward.

"Huh?" he said, confused.

"Well, slowly but surely, everyone in this town is falling prey to Famine, but so far, you seem unaffected. Now that I think about it, Elena isn't acting strangely either. Both of you are unaffected." Cas said casually.

"Hey, when I want to drink, I drink. Same goes for a sandwich or a fight. My girl is currently unaccounted for but our relationship isn't just sex so I'm not craving that." Dean shrugged, brushing it off.

"So... you're saying you're just well-adjusted?" he asked.

Dean scoffed.

"God, no. I'm just well-fed." He said, noticing a man walking out of the hospital with a briefcase "Look there."

* * *

Elena moved off of the bathtub to kneel in front of him.

"Sam?" she said, reaching out hesitantly.

"Ah! Elena! It hurts!" he said, throwing his head back to slam it against the wall.

"Sam…" she reached out and put her hands on his cheeks.

His eyes flew open and he looked at her.

"Elena." he said, his eyes wide.

"You can see me?" she repeated, still shocked.

"Yes." He nodded before wincing and letting out a loud yell of pain.

"God, Elena I'm so hungry!" he yelled.

"For demon blood. You're hungry for…" it suddenly clicked in her mind and she nodded.

"Demon blood is dangerous for you. It could seriously hurt you. Your craving for it is putting you in danger. You're putting yourself in danger. That's why you can see me. Anything that is a threat to you can see me." she said, staring at him before forcing him to look at her.

"Sam… you with me? We're gonna get through this, okay?" she said, clutching his face.

"Elena…" he whispered, trying to concentrate on her.

Suddenly they both heard the door open to the motel.

"Guys? Guys, what happened?" Sam called, looking over her shoulder. "I don't think it worked. I think I'm still…"

Two demons appeared in the bathroom door.

"...still hungry." He finished.

Elena stood slowly, pulling her dagger out of the sheath.

"Take care of her, would you?" the female demon asked the male demon.

He launched forward and slammed Elena into the wall. She slashed at him as he tossed her into the bathtub and the curtain came down on her.

"Look at this. Someone trussed you up for us. Boss says we can't kill you... but I bet we can break off a few pieces." The female demon said as Elena struggled and the male climbed on top of her to finish her.

She heard the sound of metal breaking and then a loud growl followed by a crash.

"Sam!" Elena yelled, shoving the demon off of her and shoving her blade into his chest.

He flashed gold as he stared at her with shock. Elena ran into the living room and saw Sam bent over the female sucking blood from her neck on the shattered glass table.

"Get him off! Get him off!" the female screamed.

Elena ran forward and tried to pull Sam off of her. He wouldn't budge. She looked around and grabbed a piece of wood to hit Sam over the head with. He turned and shoved his hand out before she could make contact. She flew backwards and into the wall, her head slamming into it before she fell onto the ground, her vision darkening. Her last thought was that it was bullshit that she couldn't sleep but she could still be knocked out.

* * *

"Demons." Dean sighed as they pulled into the parking lot of the restaurant where the demon with the briefcase went.

"You want to go over the plan again?" he asked, looking over at Cas.

He was staring down at a piece of foil that he was folding.

"Hey, happy meal. The plan?" he said, snapping Cas to attention.

The angel started and looked at him.

"I take the knife, I go in, I cut off the ring hand of Famine, and I meet you back here in the parking lot." He recited.

"Well, that sounds foolproof." He shrugged, looking out the window.

Cas disappeared from the car and he sat there for a good ten seconds before sighing.

"This is taking too long." Dean said before getting out of the car.

"Cas! Cas." He hissed as he walked into the restaurant, his shotgun in his hand.

He saw a man tilted over with his head and chest in a vat of boiling grease and he grimaced at the disgusting smell. When he looked out into the restaurant, he saw Cas kneeling on the floor stuffing his mouth with raw ground meat. Two demons suddenly attacked and overpowered him, dragging him into the restaurant.

"Apparently it would have been a good idea to bring Elena." he muttered.

* * *

Elena's eyes fluttered open and she looked around, seeing that the motel room was empty except for the two demons' bodies. She pressed a hand to her forehead and found blood leaking down it.

"Dammit, Sam." she said, grabbing her knife and standing, not bothering to heal herself before she concentrated on Dean.

Wherever he was, Famine was. And she had a feeling that Sam was heading for Famine. She appeared in a restaurant kitchen silently. She looked out of the opening into the restaurant to see Dean there surrounded by demons. Cas was kneeling on the ground eating raw beef by the handfuls.

"The other Mr. Winchester." she heard and looked up to see an old, frail man sitting in an automated wheelchair.

Dean pointed to Cas.

"What did you do to him?" he demanded.

"You sic'd your dog on me. I just threw him a steak." Famine said, smiling to reveal a set of disgusting teeth.

Elena remained in the shadows, wondering how quickly they would attack her if she jumped out. Her dagger was gripped in her hand.

"So this is your big trick? Huh? Making people cuckoo for cocoa puffs?" Dean scoffed, gesturing around.

"Doesn't take much… hardly a push. Oh, America… all-you-can-eat, all the time. Consume, consume. A swarm of locusts in stretch pants. And yet, you're all still starving because hunger doesn't just come from the body, it also comes from the soul." Famine said, smiling as if it was Christmas.

"It's funny, it doesn't seem to be coming from mine." Dean said with a smirk.

"Yes. I noticed that. Have you wondered why that is? How you could even walk in my presence?" Famine said.

Elena looked up, unable to supress her own curiosity over the matter of why both her and Dean weren't experiencing any hunger.

"Well, I like to think it's because of my strength of character." Dean shrugged.

"I disagree." Famine moved closer to him, reaching out to touch his chest.

Dean let out a grunt of pain as two demons held him in place. Elena slowly crept up onto the counter, silent so that the demons didn't see or hear her. She'd heard enough of this Famine guy.

"Yes. I see. That's one deep, dark nothing you got there, Dean. Can't fill it, can you? Not with food or drink. Not even with sex." the Horseman said.

"Oh, you're so full of crap." Dean snapped, glaring at him.

"Oh, you can smirk and joke and lie to your brother, lie to yourself, but not to me! I can see inside you, Dean. I can see how broken you are, how defeated. You can't win, and you know it. But you just keep fighting. Just... keep going through the motions. You're not hungry, Dean, because inside, you're already... dead." Famine said, looking thrilled.

Elena suddenly appeared beside him, her knife pressed to Famine's neck before anyone could move.

"You're lying." she growled, pressing it closer.

Famine waved off the demons that walked forward to attack her.

"Am I? You can see him. All the drinking and the anger. The violence and the lashing out. He's dead inside and there's nothing you can do about it."

Elena yanked his head back, forcing him to look up at her. She knew that this man could obliterate her but there was a reason that he wasn't and that was good enough for her.

"You are lying. Dean isn't dead inside. I know what he is and he has got light in him that you can't even see because you are filled with darkness. So you don't get to tell me why my hunter is." She snapped, pressing the knife closer to his throat.

"You are the same. That is why you don't see it. Did you really think that this life would not affect you? You are a murderer! This life with him has has darkened your soul!" he laughed.

Elena stared at him for a moment before her eyes flickered up to Dean.

"I'm a guardian, you son of a bitch. The Winchesters' guardian. And I'll have you know I'm great at sex. There is no way that guy walks away from me disappointed." She informed him.

Suddenly she was ripped off of him by a demon that snuck up on her. She fought against him but another demon grabbed her and they wrestled her to her knees.

"Let them go." a voice said.

They turned to see Sam standing there, his face stained with blood.

"Sam..." Famine said, sounding thrilled.

"Sammy, no!" Dean breathed, looking horrified.

Two demons that were guarding Dean walked forward to grab Sam.

"Stop! No one lays a finger on this sweet little boy. Sam, I see you got the snack I sent you." Famine said with a grin.

"You sent?" Sam asked, glaring at him.

"Don't worry. You're not like everyone else. You'll never die from drinking too much. You're the exception that proves the rule. Just the way... Satan wanted you to be. So..." he lifted his hands and gestured to the two demons. "...cut their throats. Have at them!" Famine

"Sammy, no!" Dean yelled as Elena struggled against her captors once more.

"Please, be my guest." Famine said happily.

They watched with horrified looks as Sam lifted his hand and closed his eyes. Black smoke began pouring from all of the demons' mouth and pooled on the floor. Once all of the demons were exorcised, Sam opened his eyes.

"No." he said darkly.

"Well... fine. If you don't want them... then I'll have them." Famine said, opening his mouth and sucking all of the black smoke in.

They all stepped away from him as he smirked triumphantly. Sam stepped forwar dand extended his hand once more, this time to Famine. Nothing happened.

"I'm a Horseman, Sam. Your power doesn't work on me." he said proudly.

"You're right. But it will work on them." Sam said, clenching his hand.

They heard a ripping noise and black smoke began to leak from Famine. The Horseman screamed as he suddenly exploded into black smoke and his body fell back, lifeless, on the wheelchair.

Elena looked over to see Sam's nose bleeding. Cas stood as they all stared at him. The angel walked forward slowly and hesitantly before reaching up and pressing a finer to Sam's head. He didn't fight Cas, allowing him to knock him out.

* * *

Elena watched as Dean packed up the motel room. Sam was out in the car, sufficiently knocked out until they got to Sioux Falls. She heard a flutter and turned to see that it wasn't the angel she suspected. Luckily, he was wearing a white fluffy bathrobe this time.

"What do you want?" she sighed, turning back to see Dean shoving stuff in the weapons bag.

"Thought you might want an explanation… of why Famine didn't affect you." Cupid said, looking past her at Dean, who was putting the other Horseman ring in the same pocket as the first one.

She turned to look at him.

"It's not true, is it? That we're… dark?" she asked hesitantly.

She knew that it wasn't true for Dean but… it was still terryfing to think of.

"Course not." He scoffed, shaking his head.

"Then what?" Elena asked, feeling a little bit relieved.

"You and Dean… you're soulmates." He said.

She looked at him with surprise, not expecting that answer. Then she grew a little bit angry, understanding why Dean was mad at this being earlier.

"Did you put your mojo spell on me and Dean? Are there marks on our hearts?" she demanded, turning to face him.

"No… no of course not. Heaven would never want Michael's vessel to fall in love. If it were their choice, you two would have just been good friends. That's all. Heaven has nothing to do with soulmates. It's a deeper bond than even the most powerful angel can create." He explained.

Elena stared at him, not quite comprehending what he was saying.

"Your souls are connected. Your lives are so entertwined that even heaven can't untangle you. Trust me, they've tried. They're still trying with this whole invisibility business. You can't feel it, but your soul is longing very deeply for Dean and his is doing the same for you. But it isn't just you and Dean. There is a reason you feel so strongly for Sam too. You recognize that he is important to Dean and therefore he is important to you. If Dean were to be around your brother as much as you were around his, he would have the same connection to him. That is why your love and need to protect both of the Winchester boys is far deeper than any guardian. That is why your lives have been circling around each other since you were a mere child. You were always meant to find each other, Elena." Cupid said.

"But… the angels… they wanted to use me against him." she said, shaking her head. "That's why they brought us together. They wanted to have something to take away from him."

"No that's not it. That was just a useful byproduct for them. Without any interference from Zachariah or Castiel or Gabriel, you two would have come together. Soulmates are rare and their bond is written on the stones of the Fates." He said, looking at Dean.

"You said that you would tell me why we didn't feel Famine's effects." She sighed, taking everything in.

"Your souls long for each other above any human nourishment. But souls are not simple things by any means. Your souls are already clawing trying to get you two back together. They didn't need any further help from Famine to be insane with need. They already were. That is why you didn't feel it." He explained.

Elena put her hand over her mouth, tears filling her eyes.

"Why didn't Cas and Gabriel tell me this?" she asked, turning to look at Dean.

"They aren't like me, Elena. They are warriors. They don't know this part of humans like I do. They can't sense it like I can." He said.

"So they have no idea?" she asked.

"I'm not even sure that many beings know at all. Michael probably knows. Possibly Zachariah. They are trying to hold it off but… no one can stop it and no one can keep it at bay for very long." Cupid said.

"What does that mean?" she breathed, staring at Dean.

"It means… I wouldn't be surprised if you wake up one of these days all visible again simply because your soul overpowered the angels' control." Cupid said.

She looked over at him with shock.

"But I don't sleep." She said softly.

He let out a chuckle.

"You know what I mean."

She let out a laugh too, suddenly giddy. There was hope. There was a light at the end of the tunnel. She suddenly threw her arms around him, squeezing Cupid tightly.

"Thank you." Elena whispered before pulling away.

Cupid grinned at her.

"I am entranced by you, Elena Gilbert. As are many men." He said, putting his hand on her face.

"What does that mean?" she asked, narrowing her eyes at him.

"Part of the Petrova charm. Why do you think that Lucifer and Michael are both so fascinated by you? Why do you think that you haven't been killed by any of them yet? By Zachariah? How do you think you are so easily able to get males to do what you want? How do you think that your ancestors could do the same? It's… magical." Cupid said, smiling.

"That's… strange." she commented.

"Listen to me, Elena. You cannot tell anyone what I told you. If others get wind of this, they will not be happy. I will be killed. It will all be very bad. You could be killed." He warned.

"By anyone…" she said.

"Castiel and Gabriel. It is very important that you keep this a secret." He said.

"I hate secrets." She complained.

"Just wait until you become visible again." He said, looking around before disappearing.

Elena sighed and looked back at Dean, who was moving towards the door to walk out with the bags thrown over his shoulder. She flicked her wrist and opened the door wider for him. He turned to look back at it and she snapped her fingers, causing it to slam closed.

"Thanks." He sighed, looking exhausted.

Elena frowned worredly.

"I'll transport them back to Sioux Falls with the Impala. There is not time to drive Sam there." Cas said from beside her where he appeared abruptly.

"How are you doing? Any burger cravings?" she asked.

"No." he said darkly, still sounding upset about his binge.

* * *

Elena was pacing as they stood outside the panic room door at Bobby's house. Sam's screams filled their ears. Cas was leaning against the wall as Dean drank out of a bottle of whiskey.

"Let me out of here, please! Help!" Sam pleaded loudly, making her feel pain every time he did so.

"That's not him in there. Not really." Castiel said, recognizing that they were both distressed.

"I know." Dean and Elena said at the same time.

"Sam just has to get it out of his system. Then he'll be…"

"Listen, I just, uh... I just need to get some air." Dean cut off the angel, turning to walk upstairs as Sam's screams continued.

Elena followed him all the way outside to where the Impala was parked. He stopped and sighed, looking down at the bottle before setting it on the hood.

"I know you're here." He said.

She walked around to look at his face. There were tears in his eyes that threatened to fall.

"Please... I can't... I need some help. Please?" he whimpered, looking up at the sky hopelessly.

Elena closed her eyes for a moment before stepping up to him. She put her hands on his cheeks and pretended like he could see and feel her.

"Hey. So I found out something great today. Don't worry, we're not broken inside. Or maybe we still are but at least we're not soulless, right?" She sighed and looked up into his tear-filled eyes.

"Of course I'm going to help you, my hunter. I'm gonna help you and I'm gonna help Sam. Cause I love you both. And I'm coming back to you. I wasn't so sure about that before but I'm positive now." She said, stroking his cheek once before walking past him back to the house.

* * *

When Elena got back downstairs, Cas looked up at her.

"Close it behind me." she said as she opened the door.

"Elena…" Cas said in a warning voice.

"I can take care of myself, Cas." She said, looking back at him once before walking in.

Sam was handcuffed to the cot. His shouts were loud and she winced as she approached him. His skin was covered in sweat and his eyes were squeezed shut.

She fell to her knees by the cot, reaching out to touch him. He flinched away before looking at her.

"Elena? Help me." he pleaded, his voice hoarse from screaming.

He could still see her because he was still a threat to himself. That made it easier.

"I'm gonna help you, Sam. I'm here. I'm gonna help." She said, reaching out to put her hands on his cheeks.

"Make it go away. Make the pain go away." He pleaded.

"I'll try." She whispered, leaning forward and kissing his forehead before concentrating.

She delved into his mind and realized that she'd caused him to go unconscious. Her body relaxed as she allowed herself to be pulled into his dream.

* * *

It was dark and red-tinted. To be honest, it reminded her of the hell-dreams with Dean. They were in a small room that looked similar to the panic room but it was completely empty and didn't have any Devil's Traps or salt and iron walls.

"Sam?" she said, walking forward to where he was huddled against the wall.

"Elena…" he whispered, looking up at her.

"Hey, come on. Let's get you out of here." She said, reaching out her hand.

"I can't… I can't leave. It hurts. They're keeping me here." He said, his eyes darting around.

Elena didn't even want to know what kind of horrors he was seeing. She knelt down and took his hand.

"Do I look like I'm scared of whoever is coming after you, Sam?" Elena asked, raising an eyebrow.

He stared at her for a moment before shaking his head slowly, his lip tremblings as his eyes brimmed with tears.

"Then trust me and let's get out of here." She said, taking his hands and concentrating.

He was right, whatever the blood was doing was causing them to be locked up pretty tight in that room. But luckily, she was still pretty confident in herself after her talk with Cupid. So when she felt a light breeze around them, she looked to see that they were back in the park.

"Open your eyes, Sam." she murmured.

His eyes opened hesitantly and he looked around. He looked absolutely relieved but like he was still in pain.

"It still hurts, Elena." he confirmed, groaning.

"Shh… I know." She said, stroking his cheek before standing up and walking behind him.

She forced him to sit and crouched behind him similarly to how she had with Dean when he was about to die of the ghost sickness. Her arms wrapped around his chest and she laid her chin on his shoulder.

"I'm here, Sam. I'm going to stay here however long it takes." She said, clutching him tightly.

His hands came up to her arms and gripped them tightly.

"Thank you." he said in a shuddering breath.

Then he let out a whimper and clutched at her.

"Hey, Sam. Tell me about Jess. Tell me a story about her or something." Elena said, trying to distract him.

"She… she…" he tried to choke out.

"Tell me about when you first met her." she said.

He sighed and leaned his head back.

"It was… the first day at college. I… didn't have my books for class." He said.

"Yeah?" Elena urged him.

"I got lost trying my way to the book store. Jess found me on the total opposite side of the campus looking completely lost. After laughing at me for a while, she agreed to walk me to the bookstore. I told her that she didn't have to but she insisted. She teased me the whole way and… I think I already knew that I would love her." he said.

Elena smiled.

"What about your first date?" she asked.

Sam let out a light laugh and she knew that it was progress.

"I had no money. I hadn't gotten a job yet so all I had was what I managed to win at bars. I took her to this dollar theater and then to MacDonalds after. We came to this park to eat it. I apologized on that bench over there for the sucky date." He said.

"How did she respond?" Elena asked.

"She kissed me and told me that it was the best date she ever had." He said and she could hear that he was smiling.

Elena let go of him and crawled around to look at him.

"How are you feeling?" she asked, noticing that he looked a little less pale.

"Better." He sighed, his eyes drifting closed.

"Lie down." Elena said, pushing him down.

"Thank you, Elena." he murmured.

"I'll always be here to help you, Sam." she said, bending over and kissing his forehead once again before smoothing out his hair.

Then she looked up and smiled. Everything was going to be all right. It had to be. They were going to stop this apocalypse. She was going to be with Dean and Sam again.

* * *

**Author's Note: I hope you loved it! I love all of you! Review please!**

**You should go read Seargant Pixie's Dean/Elena fic if you haven't. It's called "Out of the Dark…" It's really good and the author is a wonderful reader of mine so I'm okay with spamming you with it. Go forth my faithful readers, please!**


	22. Chapter 22

**Disclaimer I do not own TVD or Supernatural**

**Thanks to IgnitingFireworks, RHatch89, Dark-Supernatural-Angel, xxPaige23xx, DrawingMyHeartOut, Dark Alana, Hollywood17, slayerdiaries, Nyssandria, chiwi, imusic247, MelissaIsLame, diehardromantic, Nicole0203 and the two guests for reviewing! Love you all!**

**To Nyssandria, of course I'm not upset with you. I liked hearing what you were thinking.**

**To imusic247, Elena can see beings who is a danger to the Winchesters. That's what Zachariah told her once she became invisible. So because Sam and his addiction to demon blood was putting him in danger, he could see her so that she could try to stop him.**

**A few things**

**1. There was a typo in the last chapter. I fixed it now. Elena wasn't going to Mystic Falls, they were going to Sioux Falls. Sorry guys, it gets confusing for me.**

**2. There are going to be a few familiar faces in this chapter. **

**3. Elena's outfits are on my profile.**

**4. Italics are Elena's flashback**

* * *

**Music**

**Love's to Blame – Joel & Luke (Elena's flashback)**

**Cry to Me – Solomon Burke (Elena's future dancing memory)**

**Hang You From the Heavens – The Dead Weather (Elena finds Sam and Dean in the motel room and goes after the other hunters)**

**New York – Snow Patrol (Elena lays next to Dean at Bobby's house to the end)**

* * *

Elena looked up from where she was sitting on the ground. She was in Mystic Falls in her old house watching Jeremy, Matt, Alaric, Tyler, Damon, and Stefan all playing video games. It was a strange thing to see but then again, it was just the sort of thing she loved to see when she was there. They were happy when they were doing this. Jeremy was content and that was all that mattered to her. It was a little painful that they couldn't sense her there like Dean and Sam could but she expected it. She was mainly using this as an escape. She felt bad for not being there for Dean but he was getting harder to be around. She'd stopped going into his mind after they got in a fight in a dream. It wasn't pretty. She sighed as she thought back to it, her head dropping back down again.

"_You went to sleep drunk again." Elena acknowledged from where she was sitting._

_They were in a motel room much like the one that he was staying in that night with Sam. Dean looked up from where he was tracing patterns on her bare stomach. She wasn't naked. It was an agreed upon boundary that they wouldn't have sex in the dreams. They were much more important than that to the both of them._

"_Yeah." He agreed, not sure of what else to say._

_Elena looked down at him, reaching her hand out to brush it through his soft hair. She wasn't sure of what else to say. She knew that she wanted him to stop. The drinking wasn't good for him. It was weighing on Sam, too. He could see how broken up his brother was and he knew that there was nothing he could do to stop it. Dean was too damn stubborn to accept help. She let her head fall back and looked up at the ceiling._

"_What?" Dean said, sitting up to look down at her._

_Her eyes met his and she saw that he was already getting defensive. Her first reaction was to brush it off and say 'nevermind', but that wouldn't help him at all._

"_You need to stop, Dean." She said, staring up at him._

_His eyes narrowed at her._

"_I'm not a child, Elena. I love you but that doesn't mean you dictate what I do." He said, agitated._

"_I'm not trying to dictate what you do, Dean. I'm trying to tell you that you are making a lot of bad decisions lately and drinking until you pass out every night is at the top of the list." She shot back._

_His hand snapped away from her body as if he was burned._

"_And why do you automatically know best, huh?" he demanded._

_Elena sat up, her shirt falling down to cover her again. She stared at him square in the eyes._

"_I never said that I know best. I can see what this is doing to you even if you can't. I can also see what it's doing to the people around you." she said._

"_Oh yeah, my drinking is just affecting everyone." He scoffed, angry at the accusation._

"_Yeah, Dean. It is. When is the last time that Sam looked you in the eye when you picked up a bottle, huh? When's the last time you saw Cas? Or Gabriel? Has Bobby called you in the past few weeks or has he just been talking to Sam on the phone?" Elena snapped, trying to get him to see that he was affecting the people around him._

_Dean glared at her._

"_Are you saying that people are staying away from me on purpose?" he said._

"_No, I'm saying that you're pushing them away… because you don't want them to call you out on your shit. Well too damn bad cause I'm not that easy to push away and I am all too happy to call you out." She said._

_He shook his head and slid off of the bed, turning away to run his hands down his face._

"_So basically I'm the asshole who isn't dealing with the damn apocalypse too well? I'm a burden because I can't catch a goddamn break, huh?" Dean said, turning to look at her._

_She got off of the bed._

"_You think you're the only one, Dean? The only one who has to deal with shit? Sam is lined up to be Lucifer's vessel. However bad you think you have it with being Michael's vessel, imagine how he feels being the vessel of the fucking devil! And Cas? I don't know if you can see it but his strength is failing him every day. He fell from heaven! Can you even imagine how hard it is for him to be cut off from his brothers and sisters? The people that he's spent God knows how long with? He's known us for a year and it feels like it's been forever! Bobby is stuck in a damn wheelchair! I bet you have no idea how that feels, Dean! Because no matter how bad your life gets, you will never feel as worthless as Bobby feels almost all of the time! You don't see him when he's alone! I do! _

_When he has no idea that I am there, I see him pull out a gun every damn day and hold it to his head. But then he stops and he puts it down! He takes out the bullets and he looks at that ridiculous group picture of all of us and he promises us that he is going to keep going so that he can be here for us! Yeah you have it bad, Dean! Your life has been one big string of shitty happenings but you are not the only one who is dealing with stuff! Do you see Sam running for the bottle? Cas? Bobby?" Elena demanded, all of the sudden as pissed off as he was._

_There was a few moments of silence in which they stared at each other._

"_What about you?" he said, his voice lowered a little as he gestured to her._

_She cocked her head to the side, confused by his words._

"_What?" she said._

"_What shit are you having to deal with? If you're going to pile what Sam and Cas and Bobby are dealing with on me, you might as well include your own sob story." He snapped._

_Elena didn't waste a moment before stomping up to him and punching him clear across the face. It was in a dream so it didn't hurt near as much as it could have but it gave her the satisfaction._

"_Don't you fucking dare!" she shouted._

_He stared at her with shock, surprised that she'd hit him._

"_What shit am I having to deal with? Really? I'm invisible, Dean! No one can see me except for Gabriel and Cas and, as much as I like those angels, they aren't always the best of company! It's not just you and Sam that can't see me! You do get that, right? It's everyone! I spend most of my time alone because Gabriel and Castiel can't always be around babysitting me! So I have no one to talk to! I can't kiss the man that I love! I can't hug the guy that I think of as a brother! Dammit Dean I can't even say a word to my real brother! I can't talk to anyone who I love! I am all alone most of the time! I go to Mystic Falls and my family and friends look right through me! It's not a damn sob story, you asshole! It's a fucking nightmare!" she screamed._

_He stared at her as though he regretted his words._

"_Then why do you keep going, huh? You know how to get back to your friends. To your family. All you gotta do is say the word and I say 'yes'. For you. For Sammy. For Bobby. Hell I'll even do it for those annoying Salvatores if it makes you happy. So tell me to do it, Elena. I'll do it." he said, looking defeated._

_Elena's eyes widened and she got even angrier. She lashed out and slammed her fist into his face again._

_"Do not ever say that to me again! Don't even think about saying yes you stupid son of a bitch!" she shouted, throwing him against the wall._

_Then she backed away._

"_That you even think that I would ever want you to do such a thing is sickening to me! It's nice that you hold me in such high esteem that you think I would ask that of you! Fuck you, Dean Winchester!" she yelled._

_He stared at her with his hands up in surrender._

"_I…" he had no idea what to say._

_They stood there staring at each other for a moment before Elena turned away and shook her head._

"_After everything, you would say yes so quickly. After all we have…" she trailed off, unable to put her thoughts into words because of the fury that she was still feeling._

"_Elena… I'm…" _

_She turned back and shook her head, cutting him off._

"_You can be a real selfish bastard sometimes." She snapped._

_Elena pulled out of his head after she said that, unable to handle being in that dream anymore. She knew that she was running away but she had to. She was about to cry but she promised herself she was going to be strong for Dean. She meant it. So he wouldn't see her cry. As she pushed herself off the bed, she saw Dean sit up._

"_Elena?" he said, looking around sleepily._

_She shook her head and turned for the door._

_"Elena!" he said louder._

_Sam was awake by now._

"_Dean, what's going on?" he mumbled, sitting up as well._

_Elena threw the door open and ran out into the night, not bothering to close it._

"_Elena!" his voice yelled out but she kept running._

That was a week ago. She still went into his head to be in his dreams but she didn't speak to him. He didn't speak to her either. It was like an unspoken agreement that there was nothing that they could say. Dean was still drinking. Elena wished more than anything that she could stop going in his head. That maybe if she did, he would realize what he was doing and correct his actions. But she couldn't. There was no way that she could stay away from him. Elena looked up at her brother and the rest of the Mystic Falls men, smiling as they all yelled curses and insults at the game. Suddenly she got a bad feeling. A very bad feeling. As she stood up, she looked around to see that a man was standing there. He was wearing a business suit and looked very Secret Service-esque.

"You've been requested… in heaven." He said in a low voice.

She didn't get a chance to reply before he snapped his fingers and they disappeared.

* * *

Dean felt something was wrong when he opened his eyes. First of all, he was still a little drunk. Second of all, there was someone in the room that shouldn't have been. His hand immediately went to his pillow.

"Looking for this?"

His head turned to see two men standing at the edge of the bed with masks and shotguns. One of them was holding his handgun. He popped the cartridge out and tossed it aside. Dean looked over to see Sam sitting up, a gun pointed at him as well.

"Mornin'." he said gruffly.

"Shut up. Hands where I can see 'im." The man who had the gun pointed at him said.

Dean lifts his hands but then realized that he recognized the voice. He lifted himself to a sitting position.

"Wait a minute. Is that you, Roy?" the two men froze, obviously panicked at his recognition of the two hunters.

"It is, isn't it. Which makes you Walt. Hiya Walt." Dean said, smirking at them.

The two men looked at each other for a moment before Walt pulled his mask off.

"Don't matter." Walt said.

Roy hesitated before lifting his mask off as well.

"Well, is it just me, or do you two seem a tad upset?" Dean questioned calmly.

"You think you can flip the switch on the Apocalypse and just walk away, Sam?" Walt demanded, glaring at the younger brother.

Both of their eyes grew wide.

"Who told you that?" Sam asked.

"We ain't the only hunters after you." Walt pumped his shotgun. "See you in the next life."

Dean glared at him, suddenly not so calm anymore.

"Hear me out. I can explain, okay? Please." Sam begged, looking between the other hunters.

There was a pause in which Walt and Roy exchanged a look. Then a loud bang filled the air as Walt shot Sam. Dean made to launch forward but Roy followed his movements with the gun, causing him to remain where he was. All traces of drunkeness were gone and replaced by unrestrained fury.

"Stay the hell down." Roy snapped.

Dean stared at Sam's lifeless body, wondering where the hell Elena and Cas were. She had to have felt that this was happening.

"Shoot 'im." Walt instructed his partner, nodding at Dean.

Roy hesitated, looking at Dean.

"Killin' Sam was right but Dean…" Roy trailed off.

"He made us and we just snuffed his brother, you idiot. You want to spend the rest of your life knowing Dean Winchester's on your ass, 'cause I don't. Shoot 'im." Walt snapped.

Dean looked away from Sam to face Roy.

"Go ahead, Roy, do it. But I'm going warn you, when I come back I'm going to be pissed. But that's nothing compared to the person you should really be afraid of. I guarantee you, she's on her way. So I feel bad for you." There was silence in the room. "C'mon! Let's get this show on the road."

"Come on, already." Walt said, looking at Roy.

Walt stepped forward when Roy shook his head and aimed at Dean before shooting him.

* * *

Elena groaned, sitting up. She looked around to see that she was back in the same room that Zachariah took her to when he turned her invisible. Zachariah was in there with her, of course. Other than that, they were alone.

"I see you replaced that vase I smashed." She said, sitting up.

Then she realized that she was no longer in the jeans and t-shirt that she was wearing before. She looked down to see that she was wearing a light green sundress, a stark white coat, and white lace heels.

"What am I, a damn housewife?" she said, glaring down at the outfit.

"It's a good look on you, Elena… if I may say so." Zachariah said.

She looked up at him with narrowed eyes.

"No, you can't." she said, snapping her fingers to change her outfit.

Nothing happened.

"Sorry, Elena. We have your abilities blocked for now. It's not permanent, I promise." Zachariah said, sitting on the couch across from her.

"Are you scared?" she asked with a smirk, leaning forward.

"You get more and more like those Winchesters every day." Zachariah said.

Elena sat back, not responding to his acknowledgment.

"Why am I here? You know I'm not going to convince Dean to say yes." She said.

"Well… as it so happens, those hunters of yours are paying us a visit here in heaven in a few minutes." He said.

Elena's eyes widened and she sat up.

"You can't kill them. You're not allowed." She said.

"Well I am not the one doing to killing. And I only want to find them so that I can send them back to their earthly bodies. Well, after I convince them to say yes, of course. You see, it's much easier to be convincing when I'm on my home field. They won't have any other choice. But I knew that if they were here, you wouldn't be far behind. So I did some pre-emptive work and brought you up here myself. I can't have you being those boys' guardian, not right now. So I'm going to drop you in the middle of a maze. You might see a few familiar faces and that should keep you busy until I'm ready to send you back. Now don't bother to try popping from place to place, you'll just get even more lost, I promise you. Have fun, Elena. I'll see you soon." He said with a grin before he snapped his fingers.

* * *

Dean groaned as he woke up, realizing that he was in the Impala. 'Knocking on Heaven's Door' was playing on the radio. Thunder suddenly crashed around him and he looked out of the car to see that it was nighttime. He got out slowly, shutting the door. The sound of the trunk closing alerted him and he turned to see a teenaged Sam standing there holding a crate of fireworks.

"Sammy?" he questioned, confused.

"Come on, let's go." Younger Sam said happily, running off into the field that the Impala was parked across from.

"Weird dream." Dean shrugged, following him onto the field.

Sam dropped the crate onto the ground and pulled out a couple of them.

"Got your lighter?" he asked, handing Dean one of them.

Dean stared at him for a moment and checked his pockets. He pulled out an old lighter and stared at it with wide eyes.

"Whoa, I haven't seen this in years." He chuckled.

"Fire 'em up!" Sam said happily.

He lit up his brother's firework before doing his own. They went off, shooting red sparks into the sky. Dean smiled as he suddenly remembered.

"I remember this! It's Fourth of July, 1996." He said, looking down at Sam.

His little brother looked back at him, looking more innocent that Dean had seen him look in years.

"Dad would never let us do anything like this. Thanks, Dean. This is great." He said, leaning forward and wrapping his arms around Dean's waist.

Dean was startled for a moment before he hugged Sam back, smiling. Sam suddenly pulled away and took his lighter, lighting all of the fireworks at once.

"Fire in the hole!" he yelled, running away.

They backed up as the fireworks started to explode into the sky, sending multi-colored sparks all over the place. They both laughed with joy at the sight. Then little Sam ran out to dance under the sparks, utter happiness all over his face. He nodded at Dean, acknowledging the special moment before Dean nodded back. Suddenly Dean heard a particularly loud explosion followed by another. Another scene flashed in front of him, someone shooting him as he sat on a bed. Then he flashed back to the field and Sam and the fireworks were gone.

"Sam?" he called.

There was no reply. He looked around before walking back to the Impala and leaning on the roof. Suddenly he heard static coming from the radio that had stopped playing music.

"Dean!" he heard a voice say from the radio.

He bent down, leaning into the driver's side window.

"Cas?" he said questioningly.

"Yeah, it's me." the angel said over the static.

Dean climbed back in the car, staring at the radio.

"You gotta stop poking around in my dreams. I need some me time." Dean quipped, wondering why Elena wasn't there.

"Listen to me very closely. This isn't a dream." Castiel informed him.

Dean looked around, confused.

"Then what is it?"

"Deep down, you already know." Cas replied.

He suddenly flashed back on Walt, the hunter, shooting Sam and then shooting him.

"I'm dead." He realized, his heart sinking.

"Condolences." Cas deadpanned.

Dean stared at the radio before looking at the long road in front of him.

"Where am I?" he asked.

"Heaven." The angel replied, sounding impatient.

"Heaven? How did I get to heaven?" he demanded, slightly skeptical.

"Please, listen. This spell, this connection, it's difficult to maintain." Cas said.

"Wait. If I'm in heaven, then where's Sam?" Dean questioned, looking down at the radio.

"What do you see?" Castiel asked, ignoring his question.

"What do you mean 'what do I see'?" he shot back.

"Some people see a tunnel or a river. What do you see?"

"Nothing. My dash. I'm in my car. I'm on a road." Dean replied, wondering what importance this possibly had to the conversation.

"Alright. A road. For you it's a road. Follow it, Dean. You'll find Sam." the radio began breaking up. "Follow… the… road."

Dean stared at it for a moment before shrugging and turning on the Impala. He started down the road, wondering where he would find Sam.

* * *

Elena looked around as she landed in the middle of a clearing in a forest. She was still in the dress and ridiculous bright white coat. When she snapped her fingers, her outfit changed to something more sensible and she sighed with relief before turning around.

"All right, so how do I get out of this?" she mumbled, running her hands through her long hair.

She spotted something among the trees and ran forward. It looked like one of those shacks that Ash took her into on her last visit to heaven. She pulled the door open and ran in.

"Ash?" she called, looking around at the dark room.

"Guess again." A voice said before the lights turned on.

Elena turned around slowly and her eyes widened.

"Mom?"

* * *

Dean walked into the house that he found at the end of the road, confused about where this was. When he saw Sam sitting at a table with a family eating what looked like Thanksgiving dinner, he smirked. Sam was in a white shirt and a tie with a girl in braces beaming at him.

"Wow. Just wow." He said, causing Sam to look up at him with surprise.

"Dean? What are you doing in my dream?" he said questioningly.

Dean just made a face at him before turning around. They stood in the living room as Dean explained everything that Cas told him. When he was done, Sam stared at him.

"Heaven." He said, sounding as skeptical as Dean did.

"Yup." Dean nodded, his hands in his jacket.

"Okay, how are we in heaven?" Sam asked.

"All that clean living, I guess." He shrugged.

Sam shook his head, sighing.

"No, no. Okay. You… I get, sure. But me? Maybe you haven't noticed, but I've done a few things?" he said, trying to get Dean to see his point.

"You thought you were doing the right thing." Dean reminded him.

"Last I checked, it wasn't the road to heaven that was paved with good intentions." Sam said.

"Yeah, well, if this is the Skymall it sucks." Dean said with a grimace.

Sam glanced over at the family that seemed to be carrying on the conversation without him actually being there.

"You know, when you bite the dust they say your life flashes before your eyes." he said.

"Your point?" Dean asked.

"This house, it's one of my memories." The younger brother said, gesturing around.

Dean nodded, realization dawning on him.

"When I woke up, I woke up in one of my memories. The Fourth of July we burned down that field?" he said.

Sam nodded and smiling remembering that as well.

"Maybe that's what heaven is a place where you relive your greatest hits." He suggested.

"Wait, so… playing footsie with brace-face in there? Then that's a trophy moment for you?" Dean scoffed, gesturing to the table.

"Dean, I was eleven years old. This was my first real Thanksgiving." Sam defended himself.

"What are you talking about? We had Thanksgiving every year." Dean said, his brow furrowing.

"We had a bucket of extra-crispy and Dad passed out on the couch." He shot back.

Before Dean could answer, there was a rumbling noise from outside. They looked around to see what it was.

"I don't remember this." Sam said just before the lights went out.

The family continued eating as the house began to shake.

"Hey…" Dean and Sam looked around. "… we should, uh…"

"Definitely." Sam agreed without Dean having to finish.

They both ran to the far corner of the room, Sam standing up by a window and Dean ducking behind the couch. A searchlight suddenly streamed through the window and they both dropped lower, squeezed themselves away from the light because they knew that it couldn't possibly be a good thing. Suddenly the searchlight disappeared as quickly as it came. Dean stood and walked to a shelf, seeing a radio on it. He began messing with it as Sam followed.

"Okay, what the hell was that?" Sam asked, looking around.

"I don't know, but we are taking the escalator back downstairs." Dean hit the radio as he spoke. "Cas!"

"What are you doing?"

"What's it look like?" he replied.

"Like you've lost your mind." Sam informed him.

Dean turned, giving him an exasperated look.

"Cas talked to me before using this phone-home radio thing, so I… Cas!" he yelled again, switching through the stations on the radio to no avail.

"I can hear you." they heard and turned to look at the TV.

Castiel's face flickered in and out on the screen. They ran forward to look at him.

"Cas. Hey! So I, uh, I found Sam but, but something just happened. There was this weird beam of light." Dean said, kneeling in front of it.

"Don't go into the light." Cas commanded.

"Okay. Thanks, Carol Ann. What was it?" Dean asked.

"Not what, whom. Zachariah. He's searching for you." he said, static filling the air around his voice.

"And if he finds us?" Sam questioned.

"You can't say yes to Michael and Lucifer if you're dead, so Zachariah needs to return you to your bodies." Castiel explained, sounding impatient once again.

"Great! Problem solved." Sam shrugged, looking at Dean.

"No. You don't understand. You're behind the Wall. This is a rare opportunity." The angel informed them.

"For what?" Dean asked.

"You need to find an angel. His name is Joshua." He said.

"Hey, man, no offense but we are kind of ass full of angels, okay. You find him." Dean said, shaking his head.

"I can't. I can't return to heaven." Cas said, shaking his head and sounding frustrated.

"So what's so important about Joshua?" Sam asked.

"The rumor is, he talks to God." He explained.

"And, so?" Dean asked.

"You think maybe… just maybe… we should find out what the hell God has been saying?" Cas snapped, his frustration boiling over.

"Jeez. Touchy." Dean said.

"Please. I just need you to follow the road."

"What road?"

"It's called the Axis Mundi. It's a path that runs through heaven. Different people see it as different things. For you, it's two-lane asphalt. The road will lead you to the Garden. You'll find Joshua there. And Joshua… can take us to God. The Garden. Quick. Hurry." Cas said.

"Hey Cas, where's Elena? I figured she would be threatening you and Gabriel in order to get up here." Dean said.

Cas shook his head.

"I can't find her… she's… I'll… look for her. Find… Garden… Joshua." He said, his voice breaking up.

The TV suddenly died and Sam turned to Dean.

"So... what do you think?" he asked.

"I think that I don't like anything about this. I mean, Cas not being able to find Elena, that can't be a good thing." Dean said.

"You think Zachariah has her?" Sam asked.

Dean shrugged and sighed.

"I think we hit the yellow bricks, find this Joshua cat. Maybe that'll lead us to Elena." he said.

"Really?" Sam said, looking surprised.

"What? You don't?" Dean asked.

"No, uh. I'm just surprised you do. Last time I checked you wanted to break God's nose, now you think he can help?" Sam questioned.

"He's the only one who can. I mean, come on, Sam. We are royally boned. So prayer? The last hope of a desperate man." Dean shrugged.

Sam nodded and they turned to walk out. They stopped short when they saw that there was nothing but forest where the road and Impala used to be.

"Wasn't there a street out here?" Sam asked.

"There was." Dean confirmed.

* * *

"Hi." Miranda said, smiling as she walked forward.

Elena stared at her, not moving forward. The last time she'd seen her mother, she was trying to get her to kill herself. Miranda realized this as well, stopping.

"That wasn't me, Elena. I promise." She said.

"No, I know." She said, her hands shaking as she nodded.

Then she looked around and realized that they were in their house in Mystic Falls.

"Where's Dad?" she asked.

"I think he's out playing golf with his brother. It's all they want to do these days." Miranda said, smiling.

Elena walked forward hesitantly, reaching out to touch her mom's shoulder. Then she smiled and threw herself into her arms.

"I miss you, Mom." she said, burying her face in her hair.

"I know you do, Elena. I know." Miranda sighed, stroking her hair softly as she held her.

Elena pulled away and they walked to the couches. Then she looked back at the door hesitantly.

"Your hunters are just fine without you for a while, Elena. They're going to be in good hands." Miranda assured her.

"Mom, I'm sorry but I can't stay for long. I'm their…"

"Guardian, I know." Miranda nodded, smiling as she reached out and tucked a piece of Elena's hair behind her ear.

"I never thought that you and those boys would be so connected. I knew John Winchester for a few years. I was sad when I found out he died. Your father was as well. He was a good man."

Elena let out a scoff unwillingly. Miranda stared at her understandingly.

"I know that you don't think so…" she began.

"I know he had his moments. And that he saved a lot of people… but does that really cancel out all of the harm that he did to his sons?" Elena asked, looking up at her.

"He didn't have it easy, Elena. He wasn't even supposed to be a hunter. He wasn't born into it like your dad was. He was forced into it and to have two little boys to raise among all of it. It wasn't easy." Miranda said.

Elena sighed and looked down at her hands.

"It's just hard to see his side of things when all I see is his two boys and how damaged they are. I love them, Mom. And I hate seeing it." she said.

"I know you do, Elena. It's because you have a good heart." Miranda said, stroking her cheek as she looked up.

Elena smiled and leaned in, embracing her once again.

"I miss you Mom." she whispered.

"I know you do, sweetheart. I know." Her mother replied, hugging her back.

Then she pulled away.

"But you can't stay here forever. You and I both know that. Before you go, though. I want to show you something." She said, taking her hand.

Elena followed her up the stairs.

"Heaven works in a strange way, Elena. See you can see memories that haven't even happened. And someone showed me how to access a peek into my childrens' futures. I can't see much. Just glimpses when I look into your bedrooms. I want to show you my favorite one to look at." Miranda said, opening the door to what would have been Elena's bedroom.

Elena took in a sharp breath as a scene was revealed to her. They were standing in the Gilbert lakehouse. It was Elena and Dean. It was nighttime and there was just a few candles lit, making them and the moonlight the only light that was coming in. The old record player that belonged to her great-grandfather was playing. 'Cry to Me' by Solomon Burke was playing. They were standing and swaying around to the music, Elena's head on Dean's chest as they were pressed together tightly. She was in a black babydoll nightdress and she was barefoot. He was in a pair of jeans with no shirt on. Her eyes were closed as they danced around, their feet barely moving but yet they looked graceful as they moved together. Dean's arms slid from around her and twirled her around before bringing her back in.

Their eyes looked at each other as they continued to dance, one of Elena's arms thrown around his neck and the other in his hand. When he twirled her again, he dipped her down again.

"This is a memory?" Elena whispered, unable to keep her eyes off of herself and Dean.

"Mm-hm." Miranda nodded, smiling at the scene.

"When?" she murmured.

"I don't know. But I've been told that anything that I see her is going to happen. It's an established event, or whatever that means. So I look at this and I know that at some point, you are going to be doing this. You are going to be looking at someone like that and have him looking back at you with so much love in his eyes. It makes me thrilled for you." Miranda said.

Elena watched as they looked into each other's eyes without saying a word.

"It's beautiful." she whispered.

Wordlessly, they came together and their mouths met softly.

"And this is where I bow out." Miranda said with her eyes sparkling with amusement.

Elena turned to see her walking away before looking back at the scene. Dean lifted her easily into his arms and her legs wrapped around his waist. They broke apart to look at each other again.

"I love you." her future self murmured, looking at him in the eyes.

"I love you too." He whispered brokenly and that's when Elena saw the sadness that was in both of their eyes.

Part of her wanted this to happen the next day. She wanted to experience this memory as soon as possible. But the other part of her was terrified to learn what made them look so sad. Slowly, she backed away and closed the door, walking to the stairs. When she got to the bottom, her mother was waiting for her.

"It's time for you to go, Elena." she said.

Elena bit her lip and threw her into her mother's arms.

"I love you, Mom." she said with tears in her eyes.

"I love you too, sweetie. And I doubt this'll be the last time we see each other." she said, smiling at Elena as she kissed her on the forehead.

Elena turned away from her and sighed, heading for the front door. When she opened it, she saw the forest laid out before her. The door closed behind her as she walked out and she turned to see nothing but trees there. She sighed heavily again, turning to trudge through the forest.

* * *

Dean headed back into the house, peeking into random rooms.

"Dean. What are you doing?" Sam asked, confused.

"Looking for a road." Dean said as if it was obvious.

"You…" he cut off when Dean opened a closet that was under the stairs. "… you think the road is in a closet?"

Dean turned on the light and turned to look at him.

"We're in heaven, Sam, okay? I mean, our memories are coming true. Cas is on TV. Finding a road in a closet would be pretty much the most…" he turned back to see something on the floor of the closet. "… normal thing to happen to us today." He finished.

He bent down to see a small Hot Wheels set on the floor. His brow furrowed as he reached out to pick up a car.

"What?" Sam asked.

"I used to have one of these… when I was a kid." He breathed, putting the car on the track and setting it in motion.

Suddenly he looked up to see that they were in a different room. A child's room. Sam was back in his normal clothes and Dean was in a flannel shirt with a t-shirt and jeans along with tennis shoes with one of them unlaced.

"That was the road?" Sam questioned.

"I guess." He said, standing up and looking around.

"Kind of trippy, right?" he asked.

"Yeah." He caught sight of Dean's shirt and smirked. "More trippy. Um. Apparently, you 'wuv hugs'." He said, amused.

Dean made a face and covered his t-shirt.

"Shut up." He snapped as Sam laughed.

Dean looked around until he realized something.

"Wait a minute. I know where we are." He said.

"Where?" Sam asked, not recognizing anything.

"We're home." Dean said, looking back at him.

"Dean…" a voice called.

They both turned to the doorway to see their mother appear, looking young and beautiful in a white dress.

"Hey, Dean. You hungry?" she asked, smiling at him.

Once they trudged downstairs after her, Dean sat at the table where Mary directed him. She put a sandwich in front of him as well as a glass of milk. He smiled up at her as she looked down at him, holding up a butter knife.

"You want the crust cut off?" she asked.

"Yeah. I'd love that." Dean said, unable to keep his eyes off of her.

She smiled at him and reached down, cutting off the crusts.

"Mom?" Sam said, his voice full of emotion.

There was no response and Dean looked at Sam before looking back at Mary.

"I guess this is not your memory, Sam. Sorry." He said sympathetically, still looking at his mother.

"Dean, uh. We should… go. Keep looking for the road." He suggested.

"Just… just give me a minute, okay?" he sighed.

"Dean…"

"Sam. Please. One minute." Dean said pleadingly.

Sam nodded reluctantly, recognizing the desperation in his voice. Mary ruffled Dean's hair as she moved away from the table and the phone rang. Dean turned to face her, knowing what was going to happen next.

"Hello? … No, John. … We're not having this conversation again. … think about what? … You've two boys at home."

"I remember this. Mom and Dad were fighting and then he moved out for a couple days." He said softly, pained as he thought about the crying he heard from his mother's room at night.

"Dad always said they had the perfect marriage." Sam said.

Dean glanced back at him before looking at her again.

"It wasn't perfect until after she died."

"Fine. Then don't. … There's nothing more to talk about." Mary said before hanging up the phone.

She turned away from the table, hiding her face as she sniffled and fought back tears.

"What happens next?" Sam asked.

Dean stood slowly and walked to her.

"It's okay, Mom." he said, hugging her. "Dad still loves you. I love you, too. I'll never leave you."

They broke apart after a few moments and Mary cupped his cheeks in her hands.

"You are my little angel." She murmured before pasting a smile on her face. "How 'bout some pie? Okay."

She moved away to get the pie and Dean walked to where Sam was waiting. The younger brother shook his head softly.

"What?" Dean asked.

"I just never realized how long you've been cleaning up Dad's messes." He sighed.

Dean frowned before shaking his head as well.

"Whatever. Let's keep moving." He said.

They began searching the house, opening cupboards and drawers. Sam suddenly found a postcard that said Route 66.

"I've seen this somewhere before." he said.

"Where?" Dean asked.

They were standing in a shack all of the sudden. The wall was covered in postcards all from along Route 66. Dean looked at them and then looked down to see that he was wearing his normal clothes again.

"Where are we?" he said, looking around.

"No way." Sam said with a big grin on his face.

A golden retriever ran into the room, barking happily. Sam bent down excitedly, gathering the dog in his arms and petting him.

"Bones! Hey, c'mere! C'mere!" he exclaimed as the dog licked his face.

"Bones?" Dean asked, confused.

"Yeah. Bones was my dog. Hey." He stood up and walked to a couch, opening a pizza box that was on the coffee table.

"Your… your dog?" Dean questioned.

"Yeah." He answered.

Dean looked around, unhappy as it slowly fell into place. He remembered hearing Sam mutter about Bones a few times but he never learned what or who it was.

"Is this Flagstaff?" he growled.

"Yeah." Sam said happily, still petting the dog.

"This is a good memory for you?" Dean demanded.

Sam laughed.

"Yeah. I mean, I was on my own for two weeks. I lived on Funyuns and Mr. Pibb." He said, feeding the dog some of the pizza.

"Wow." Dean said, thoroughly unimpressed.

"What?" Sam asked, looking up at him.

"Well, you don't remember, do you?" Dean scoffed, shaking his head in disbelief. "You ran away on my watch. I looked everywhere for you. I thought you were dead. And when Dad came home…" he broke off, the look on his face telling Sam everything that he needed to know.

His face fell into a guilty look as Dean looked away, upset.

"Dean, look, I'm sorry. I never thought about it like that." he shrugged.

Dean looked back, his face set in a mask.

"Forget it. Let's roll." He said, turning to walk out of the house.

Sam gave Bones one final treat before standing to follow him. The dog followed him and he bent down to give it a last pet.

"Stay. Bones-y, stay." He said, hearing one last whine from the dog before he walked out the door.

* * *

Elena looked around curiously as she walked up to another shack, this one significantly looking more run down than the last one that she'd found her mother in. She pushed the door open slowly to see that she was standing outside of a country house. She looked around to see the Impala sitting there. Two pairs of legs were sticking out from underneath it. On a crate beside it sipping on a root beer sat a pre-teenaged Sam. She walked up to the car slowly.

"Hello?" she said, peering down curiously.

Sam didn't react one of the men slid out, revealing John Winchester. He was older than she'd ever seen him and his face was scruffy with lines by his eyes.

"Hi." He said, a smile on his face.

Then he turned his head to look underneath the car.

"Keep going, Dean." He said.

"Okay, Dad." A voice said from underneath the car.

He stood up and walked to the cooler, opening it to pull out two beers. He turned and handed one to her. She took it, staring at him strangely.

"You know who I am?" she asked.

"Course I do. I don't care what anyone says, you look like Grayson more than you do his kid brother." John said, leaning against the car.

Elena caught the bottle opener when he threw it to her and opened her own beer.

"I don't know why I'm here." She said, looking around.

"It's a strange place." He shrugged, looking around.

Suddenly a door opened and she turned to see Mary Winchester walk out carrying a tray, looking older than when she'd last seen her but still just as beautiful.

"Oh this is Elena." she said smiling at her.

She was surprised. She hadn't expected the matriarch.

"Hi." She said, waving.

"Oh John, she's underage." Mary said, rolling her eyes at the beer in her hands.

"She deals with our sons every day, Mary. She has to save their lives all the time. Considering that their lives are always in danger, I think she deserves a drink." John said.

Mary sighed and took the beer from Elena's hand, replacing it with a glass of lemonade from her tray.

"Don't listen to that old man." she said with a smile.

Elena smiled back and watched as John pulled Mary to him and put his arms around her shoulders as they faced Elena.

"I'm sorry, but I really don't know why I'm here. I should go." Elena said, gesturing to the forest that lined the house.

"No please stay, just for a minute." Mary said, stopping her.

Elena bit her lip and nodded, feeling uncomfortable.

"We just wanted to say thank you. I know that it's not easy, what you do. You've had to sacrifice a lot to keep our boys safe. We understand all of that and yet you still stick with them and help them. You have no idea how thankful we are for that." Mary said.

"It's not all that hard of a decisions. I care about them too much to leave." Elena shrugged off.

"That's why it's amazing. You don't even consider it a burden." John marveled.

Her eyes lifted to stare straight into his.

"I don't consider keeping the people I love safe a burden at all, ever. And I never will." She said, not bothering to hide the accusing tone in her voice.

Mary looked back at John with a sad look before pushing away from him.

"It was nice to meet you, Elena. I think I'm going to leave you two alone." Mary said, smiling at Elena and walking forward to hug her and kiss her cheek.

"Come inside boys and wash up for dinner!" she called.

Elena watched as Dean slid out from underneath the car. He was young, probably seventeen. Sam followed him inside, dodging Dean's hands as he messed around with him.

"I know that you don't have a very high opinion of me, Elena." he said.

"I'm sorry." She said, not denying that fact.

"I don't blame you. I made a lot of mistakes. Especially when it came to those two boys. I wish I could go back and change so many things but I can't. But you have to know that I regret all of it." he said.

Elena sighed and walked over, leaning on the hood the Impala next to him.

"I believe you. And I know that you love Dean and Sam. But feeling regret now doesn't change the fact that they are two very damaged human beings." She said, looking over at him as she set the glass of lemonade on the car.

"You're right, it doesn't." he agreed.

"I'm not all that angry at you anymore. I've read some of your journal and I know some of the things you went through. I know that it was very difficult for you to raise Sam and Dean after Mary died. But now… I just feel lost. I don't know how to help them get past everything that they've been through. I'm… so lost. Usually I know exactly how to help people but they… and by they I mean Dean… don't make it easy." She admitted.

John chuckled and nodded.

"Dean isn't exactly the easiest person to deal with, no." he agreed.

Elena looked over at him, taking him in. He was much less intimidating than she expected him to be.

"Any ideas?" she asked.

He sighed and looked over at her.

"Just don't leave 'em. They've had too many people leave them in their lives. If you stick around, they'll get better. It might be a slow process but it'll happen." He said.

"So just… stick around." she said.

He nodded and she smiled slightly.

"That I can do." She agreed.

* * *

As they walked out of the house, they ended up in front of a motel room. Sam immediately recognized where they were but it took Dean longer.

"What memory is this?" he asked.

"No idea." Sam said, obviously lying. "Alright, come on. Dean… road. God. Remember?"

"Wait a minute. Wait a minute. This?" Dean turned to look at Sam accusingly. "This is the night you ditched us for Stanford, isn't it? This is your idea of heaven? Wow."

Dean laughed painfully, sounding hurt and angry.

"This was one of the worst nights of my life." he said, turning away to look back at the motel.

"I can't control this stuff." Sam sighed.

Dean turned back to him.

"Seriously? I mean this is a happy memory for you?" he demanded.

"I don't know. I mean, I was on my own. I finally got away from Dad." Sam shrugged.

"Yeah, he wasn't the only one you got away from." Dean scoffed, turning away once again.

"Dean, I'm sorry. I just, uh…"

"I know. You didn't, you didn't think of it like that." he interrupted.

"Dean!" Sam said, trying to get him to see his side.

"C'mon! Your heaven is somebody else's Thanksgiving. Okay. It's bailing on your family. What do you want me to say?" the older brother said loudly.

"Man, I never got the crusts cut off my PB & J. I just don't look at family the way you do." Sam sighed.

"Yeah, but I'm your family. Elena is your family! Bobby is your family!" he said.

"I know…" Sam said, nodding.

"I mean, we're supposed to be a team. It's supposed to be all of us against the world, right?" Dean said imploringly.

"Dean, it is!" he exclaimed.

There was a loaded pause as Dean studied him.

"Is it?" he questioned skeptically.

Sam looked devastated for a moment but there wasn't time to say anything as a searchlight fell on them. They looked up and then began running into the forest that seemed to appear at the side of the road.

"Go! Go!" Dean yelled

They ran throught he forest, avoiding the searchlight. Finally they dove behind a particularly large fallen tree.

"Wow. Running from angels. On foot. In heaven. With out-of-the-box thinking like that I'm surprised you boys haven't stopped the Apocalypse already." Zachariah's voice echoed around them.

They heard him snap his fingers and suddenly it changed from nighttime to daytime.

"Guys. What's the problem? I just want to send you back to Earth, that's all." Zachariah said.

They peeked over the log to see that the angel was standing a few yards away with his back to them. When he started to turn, they ducked down again.

"I mean, that is, after I tear you a cosmos of new ones." He said triumphantly, walking forward. "You're on my turf now, boys. And by the time I through with you, you're going to be begging to say yes." He said.

Dean and Sam nodded at each other before taking off running again. Zachariah suddenly appeared in front of them and they stopped abruptly.

"Guys, c'mon. You can run but you can't run." He said, smirking.

They turned to run back the way they came. Suddenly they were confronted with a slim figure in a colorful mask and a gold cape. He lifted one finger to his mouth and indicating that they should be silent.

Dean and Sam turn around and run back the way they came. This time they come to a halt when confronted by a slim figure in a colorful mask and a gold cape. The figure lifts one finger to his mouth to indicate they should be silent.

"Hurry! This way." he hissed, gesturing for them to follow.

He led them to a small wooden shack and scribbled a sigil on the door before he opened it and ran inside. Sam and Dean followed before the door slammed shut.

"Wait. Who are you?" Sam asked, stopping him.

The figure took off the mask and cape before looking at them.

"Buenos dias, bitches." He said proudly.

"Ash?" Dean said, squinting through the darkness.

Ash suddenly clapped his hands twice and the lights switched on. He spreaded his arms out dramatically.

"Welcome to my blue heaven." He said.

Dean looked around, stunned, and Sam smiled as they realized that they were in Ellen's Roadhouse.

* * *

Elena looked around as she walked through the forest. She'd just said goodbye to John and now she was wandering again. Only she wasn't finding any more shacks. When she felt a presence behind her, she turned to Zachariah to see him looking less than pleased.

"How's that whole finding Sam and Dean thing going?" she asked, feeling triumphant at the annoyance in his eyes.

"Who knew those boys would manage to find allies in heaven?" he snapped, walking forward.

"I did." she said, raising her hand with a bigger smile.

"I have no use for you to be up here anymore. I will warn you, if you try to come back up here and get the Winchesters, I'll kill you in front of them in a way that you will not be revived." He threatened before snapping his fingers.

* * *

"Good God, the Roadhouse. It even smells the same." Dean said, looking around.

"Bud, blood and beer nuts. It's the best smell in the world." Ash walked around the bar and snapped his fingers. "How 'bout a cold one? Up here? No hangover."

Dean and Sam sat down on the bar stools across from him.

"So… no offense…" Sam began.

"How did a dirt bag like me end up in a place like this?" Ash interrupted. "I've been saved, man. I was my congregation's number one snake handler."

"And you said this was your heaven?" Sam asked, smiling.

"Yup! My own… personal…"

Dean and Sam watched as he punched a hole in the side of a can and drank all of the beer at once.

"And when the angels jumped us? We were…" Sam trailed off.

"In your heaven." He nodded.

"So there're two heavens?" Sam questioned.

"No. More like a hundred billion. So, no worries, it'll take those angels boys a minute to catch up." Ash assured them, handing them two open bottles of beer.

"What?" Dean asked, completely confused.

"See, you gotta stop thinking of heaven as one place. It's more like a butt-load of places all crammed together. Like Disneyland except without all the anti-Semitism." Ash explained.

They still looked confused.

"Disneyland?" Sam asked.

"Mm-hmm. Yeah. See you got Winchesterland." He held his hands up to gesture to the bar. "Ashland. A whole mess of everybody-else-lands. Put them all together heaven. Right? At the center of it all? Is the Magic Kingdom. The Garden." He said.

"So everybody gets a little slice of paradise." Dean nodded.

"Pretty much. A few people share… special cases. What not." He nodded. "Most people can't leave their own private Idaho's."

"But you ain't most people." Dean said, smiling.

"Nope. They ain't got my skills. Hell, I've been all over. Johnny Cash. André the Giant." Ash turned to look at Sam. "Einstein. Sam, that man can mix a White Russian. Hell, the other day? I found Mallanāga Vātsyāyana."

"Who?" Sam questioned.

"He wrote the Kama Sutra. Huh, that boy's heaven? Ah, sweaty. Confusing." Ash said, grinning.

"All this from a guy who used to sleep on a pool table." Dean said proudly.

"Yeah. Now that I'm dead, I'm living, man, a whole lot more." He said.

"So how'd you find us?" Sam asked.

"I rigged up my very own…" he pulled a laptop from underneath the bar. "… holy-rolling police scanner."

A mess of graphs and screeching noises appeared on the screen.

"That's angels. Blabbing Enochian, okay? I'm fluent. I heard that you were up. Of course I had to come find you. Again." He said.

"Again?" Dean asked, surprised.

"This ain't the first time here. I mean, you boys die more than anyone I've ever met." Ash said.

"Really." They were both even more surprised.

"Ah, yeah… you don't remember. God! Angels. Must've Windexed your brain." He said, disappointed as if they'd had good times in all of their other visits.

"So, uh. I mean, have you found anybody else? How 'bout our folks?" Dean asked.

"I've been looking all over for John Winchester, Mary too, but so far nada. I'm sorry. But hey! There is somebody that wants to jaw with you. Hold up." He left the bar and walked into the back room.

There were symbols on the door that looked like the same one drew before. A few moments later, he appeared with Pamela.

"Pamela!" Sam exclaimed, looking happy.

"Nice to see you boys again." She said, raising an eyebrow at them.

* * *

Elena looked around to see that she was standing in the parking lot of the motel that Dean and Sam were staying in. She was back on earth. When she ran to the room that they were in, she threw open the door telepathically to see that they were lying lifeless in their beds. In the next moment, she heard the sound of tires squealing. She looked out the door to see two men in a car that was peeling out of the motel. Her eyes narrowed dangerously. She ripped off the jacket that she was wearing and let it fall to the ground, feeling her dagger that was on her belt. She pulled it out and tossed it on the bed before closing her eyes and concentrating.

In the next moment, she was standing in the middle of the road. She heard the sound of a car slamming on its breaks behind her. She turned her head slowly and saw the car from the motel parking lot stopping short mere feet away from her. The men stared at her for a moment before they opened their doors. She turned to face them with her head high.

"You okay, Miss?" the one driving said.

She played innocent for a moment, walking up to him.

"No, I'm not." She said sadly.

He looked perplexed yet interested in her.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"My lover just died." She said, reaching out to touch his jacket.

"Oh, I'm sorry." He said, looking confused and sympathetic.

She peeked up at him through her eyelashes.

"You know what?" Elena asked.

"Hmm?" he said, as she stepped closer.

Her lips were at his ear when she whispered.

"You just killed him." she said.

Then she slammed his head into the side of the car much to the other man's surprise. He fell to his knees and she drove her knee into his face.

"You see I'm quite protective of my hunters. I'm sure that they warned you about me and you, being two fucking idiots, probably didn't listen." She explained, catching the other man as he ran at her and slamming her fist into his face, causing him to fall to the ground.

"Now you're probably not gonna be able to move for a few days after I'm done with you. But once you can, I want you to go to every hunter that you know, call them, tell them in person so that they can see the thorough ass-kicking that you got, I don't care. But you tell them that the next person who comes after the Winchesters… is going to die. Do you hear me?" she asked, bending down to their levels so that they would look at her.

They stared at her with wide eyes. She grabbed both of their throats, pulling them in close as her fury overtook her.

"Do you hear me?" she repeated.

They nodded with difficulty, sputtering for air.

"Great, now how about we get on with this ass-kicking?" she asked, smirking.

Their eyes widened more as she stood.

* * *

"So this is how you get around up here?" Sam asked as he watched Ash work on his computer.

"Hm, more or less. It's awesome to finally have an application… a practical application… for string theory." He said happily.

"So!" Dean said, ignoring Sam geeking out over Ash.

"So…" she reached out and swatted his head. "That's for getting me killed."

"Yeah." He sighed. "That's… probably less than I deserve. Makes you feel any better, we got Ash killed too." He said.

Ash raised his hand in a rock salute, having heard Dena.

"I'm cool with it." he said, snapping his fingers.

"He's cool with it. So you… you good?" Dean asked, leaning forward.

"I'm good. Really. Remember my death scene? Gut shot. Coughing blood. You told me I was going someplace better." She asked.

"I was lying." Dean nodded, speaking bluntly.

"You were right! My heaven? It is one long show at the Meadowlands. It's amazing! You should see it." she said with a wide grin.

"Yeah." He said, nodding his head.

"You don't believe me." Pamela said, tilting her head to the side.

"No, I do, it's just, you know. Spending eternity trapped in your own little universe while the angels run the show, that's lonely. You know. That's not Nirvana. That's the Matrix." He shrugged.

"I don't know. Attic's still better than the basement." She said.

"Yeah, but you know this place feels real, but it's Memorex. Real is down there." he said, pointing at the floor.

"Yeah, well, close enough. Look, Dean, I'm happy. I'm at peace." She explained.

"What? Are you trying to sell me a time share? I mean, what's with the pitch?" he asked, raising an eyebrow at her.

Pamela chuckled, shaking her head.

"I know that Michael wants to take you out for a test drive…"

"Pamela…" Dean interrupted her, looking wary.

"Just saying. What happens if you play ball with them? Worst case." She questioned.

"A lot of people die." He informed her.

"And then they come here. Is that really so bad? Look. Maybe… you don't have to fight it so hard. That's all I'm trying to say." She shrugged.

Sam and Ash turned around, interrupting Dean from formulating a reply.

"Hey! Found a short cut to the Garden." Sam said proudly.

Ash gave them a thumbs up that Pamela returned.

"Oh yeah." He said proudly.

A few minutes later, Ash was drawing another sigil on a door.

"All Access Pass to the Magic Kingdom." He informed them.

"Good." Dean said, nodding as he stood behind him.

Ash turned to look at him warily.

"Not good?" he questioned.

"That Zachary fella's going to be watching every road to the Garden." He warned him.

Sam and Pamela walked forward, having just hugged.

"Ah, gentlemen. I don't mean to be a downer or anything but… I'm sure I'll see you again soon. Bring Elena next time, you hear? I like that girl." he nodded.

"Well, keep a sixer on ice for us." Dean shrugged.

"Yeah." Ash nodded, opening the door for them.

They looked around, confused as they walked into the living room of their home in Lawrence.

"What the… why we back home?" Dean said, confused as he looked around.

"I don't know. So what are we going to do?" Sam sighed, sounding frustrated.

"Keep looking for the road again, I guess." Dean said.

"Slow down." A voice said behind them and they turned to see Zachariah standing there.

"You did this?" Sam demanded.

"And I'm just getting started. I mean, guys. Did you really think you could just sneak past me into Mission Control?" he asked, shrugging. "Let's brass tack this, shall we?"

"You gonna ball-gag us until we say yes? Huh, yeah, I've heard that one too." Dean said, smirking.

Zachariah stepped up to Dean and slammed his fist into Dean's stomach. He folded over with a pained groan as he fell to the flooor.

"I'm going to do a lot more than that. I've cleared my schedule. Get him up."

Two angels were suddenly behind them and one of them pulled Dean up only for Zachariah to punch him again. Sam struggled against the angel that was holding him.

"Let me tell you something. I was on the fast track once. Employee of the month, every month, forever. I would walk these halls and people would avert their eyes!" the house rumbled as he bellowed.

I had respect! And then they assigned me you. Now look at me." Zachariah chuckled unhappily. "I can't close the deal on a couple of flannel-wearing maggots? Everybody's laughing at me… and they're right to do it. So! Say yes, don't say yes; I'm still going to take it out of your asses. It's personal now, boys, and the last person in the history of creation you want as your enemy is me. And I'll tell you why. Lucifer may be strong, but I'm… petty. I'm going to be the angel on your shoulder for the rest of eternity." He said, grinning at them.

"Excuse me. Sir?" a voice interrupted him.

They all turned to face the newcomer, who was a slightly older man.

"I'm in a meeting." Zachariah said, gesturing to Sam and Dean.

"I'm sorry. I need to speak to those two." he said, nodding at the brothers.

"Excuse me?" Zachariah asked, shocked.

"It's a bad time, I know, but I'm afraid I have to insist." He said.

"You don't get to insist jack-squat."

He didn't back down, just staring at Zachariah.

"No, you're right. But the boss does. His orders." He shrugged.

"You're lying." Zachariah said with uncertainty.

"I wouldn't lie about this. Look, fire me if you want. Sooner or later, he's going to come back home and you know how he is with that whole wrath thing." He said.

Zachariah looked back at Dean and Sam before looking at the man. He didn't back down once again and there was a fluttering of wings and they were alone with the stranger.

Dean and Sam moved closer to each other, watching the angel warily. They were suddenly standing in a conservatory.

"This is heaven's Garden?" Sam asked as they walked towards him.

"It's-it's nice… ish. I guess." Dean stammered, looking around.

"You see what you want to here. For some it's God's throne room; for others it's Eden. You two, I believe it's the Cleveland Botanical Gardens. You came here on a field trip." He explained.

Sam nodded in agreement and remembrance.

"You're Joshua." He said.

"I'm Joshua." He nodded.

"So, you talk to God." The younger brother confirmed.

"Mostly, He talks to me." he said.

"Well, we need to speak to Him. It's important." Sam informed him.

"Where is he?" Dean questioned.

"On Earth." Joshua nodded.

"Doing what?" the older Winchester asked.

"I don't know." The angel replied.

"Do you know where on Earth?" Sam asked desperately.

"No, sorry. We don't exactly speak face-to-face." Joshua said.

"I… I don't get it. God's not talking to nobody so…"

"… why's he talking to me." Joshua interrupted Dean. "I sometimes think it's because I can sympathize… gardener to gardener… and, between us, I think he gets lonely." He said.

"Well, my heart's breaking for him." Dean said, disgusted.

"Well, can you at least get him a message for us?" Sam interrupted him from saying any more.

"Actually, he has a message for you. Back off." Joshua informed them.

"What?" Dean said, surprised.

"He knows already. Everything you want to tell him."

"But…" Sam began.

"He knows what the angels are doing. He knows that the Apocalypse has begun. He just doesn't think it's his problem." Joshua explained.

"Not his problem?" Dean asked, stunned.

"God saved you already. He put you on that plane. He brought back Castiel. He granted you salvation in heaven…" Joshua turned to face Sam "… and after everything you've done too. It's more than he's intervened in a long time. He's finished. Magic amulet or not, you won't be able to find him." Joshua said.

"But he can stop it. He can stop all of it." Dean argued.

"I suppose he could, but he won't." Joshua assured them.

"Why not?" Dean demanded.

"Why does he allow evil in the first place? You could drive yourself nuts asking questions like that."

"So he's just going to sit back and watch the world burn?" Dean growled.

"I know how important this was to you, Dean. I'm sorry." Joshua said sadly.

"Forget it." Dean said, obviously emotional. "Just another dead-beat dad with a bunch of excuses, right. I'm used to that. I'll muddle through." He snapped.

"Except… you don't know if you can, this time. You can't kill the Devil, and you're losing faith, in yourself, your brother, in whether or not you'll ever see your guardian again, and now this?" Joshua pointed out.

Sam looked at Dean, realizing just how desperate and depressed Dean really was.

"God was your last hope. I just… I wish I could tell you something different." The angel said sympathetically.

"How do we know you're telling the truth?" Sam asked with concern.

"You think that I would lie?" Joshua asked with raised eyebrows.

"It's just that… you're not exactly the first angel we've met." He said hesitantly.

"I'm rooting for you boys! I wish I could do more to help you, I do! But... I just trim the hedges." He shrugged, gesturing to the garden.

"So what now?" Dean said, obviously furious and hurt all at once.

"You go home again. I'm afraid this time, won't be like the last. This time, God wants you… to remember." He said.

There was a whooshing noise and a bright light.

* * *

Elena was sitting in the motel room with Cas. He assured her that they would be brought back and told her where he sent them while they were in heaven. It had been hours that they'd been sitting there. Suddenly they both inhaled sharply, sitting up abruptly. Elena sighed with relief as Cas started forward. The brothers looked at him before exchanging hesitant looks. Then they began to tell Cas what Joshua told them. His face lost hope more and more as they took turns explaining as they changed out of their bloodstained stuff and packed up.

"Maybe… maybe Joshua was lying." he said, still trying to hold onto a last shred of hope.

The brothers looked at him, pulling their jackets on.

"I don't think he was, Cas. I'm sorry." Sam sighed.

Elena looked over at Cas as he looked up.

"You son of a bitch. I believed in…" he stopped short as Elena walked towards him, putting a hand on his shoulder.

He stared at the ceiling as if he was waiting for a sign or anything. Nothing happened. He turned to look at Dean, pulling his amulet from his pocket.

"I don't need this anymore." he said, tossing it to him. "It's worthless."

He turned away from them.

"Cas. Wait." Sam and Elena said at the same time.

Cas didn't listen, disappearing. Sam tossed his bloodstained shirt in the trash angrily as Dean stared down at the amulet.

"We'll find another way. We can still stop all this, Dean." Sam assured him.

"How?" Dean asked hopelessly, looking up at Sam.

"I don't know, but we'll find it."

Dean didn't believe him, Sam knew that and Elena knew that. He picked up his bag and walked past Sam without saying a word. He didn't even chance a look at Sam. At the door, he paused and dropped the amulet in the trash. He opened the door to the motel and left. Elena watched with tears building in her eyes to see Sam stare down hopelessly at the trash before he walked out as well. She walked to the can and pulled the necklace out, holding it in her hand. It was cold. She sighed and pulled it over her head.

"You'll want this back." she said, tucking it underneath her shirt.

* * *

That night, they were back at Bobby's. Dean was sleeping on the floor and Sam on the couch. They didn't go anywhere near the guest room. Apparently it was still reserved for Elena even though she never used it. Elena pulled off her jacket and shirt, leaving herself in her tank top, jeans, and boots. She laid on the floor next to Dean, looking up at the sky.

"All right, so he's basically given up hope. I can tell you don't give a shit about the apocalypse but are you really going to let us all crumble to pieces? Do you really want that? Because if he gives up completely, I guarantee he will. He's keeping us all going. You can't let this happen. Please." She said pleadingly, not even sure if she was talking to God or to her own soul.

Slowly, she turned over to face him, reaching out to touch his head. She didn't delve into his mind, not this time. Elena just laid there, touching his cheek.

"I love you." she whispered, a single tear falling from her cheek and onto his.

Dean shifted in his sleep and his arms unfolded, reaching out to pull her to him. Elena relaxed into his embrace before she froze. He wasn't supposed to be able to embrace her. She reached up slowly, touching his cheek where her tear was sitting. The wetness smeared onto his cheek. His head twitched and tilted into her hand as she laid it on his cheek. She didn't even know what to do. Her heart felt as though it was going to burst as she stared at him. She was truly unable to move, afraid that this was a trick. After two months of only seeing him in dreams, it had to be a trick.

"Dean…" she finally whispered pleadingly, the word a prayer on her lips.

His eyes flew open and met hers immediately. He stared at her, frozen just like she was.

"Am I dreaming?" he said, his voice rough.

"I don't… I…" she said, unable to speak much.

His arms shifted and he pulled her closer to him.

"Is this real?" he asked.

Tears filled her eyes.

"I don't know." She admitted in a soft sob, not wanting to hope too much in case it was a trick.

"Sam!" Dean hissed, not taking his eyes off of her just in case she disappeared again.

Sam mumbled something but didn't wake up.

"Sammy!" he said louder.

The younger brother's eyes popped open and he sat up, rubbing them.

"What, Dean?" he muttered.

He looked at him and froze as well, staring at the scene in front of him.

"Do you see her?" Dean asked, tears building in his own eyes.

Elena's body trembled as she waited for Sam's answer.

"Yes." He breathed, staring at her as if she was an illusion.

She let out another sob as a single tear fell down Dean's face.

"It's real?" he whispered.

"I… I guess it is." She said, unable to say anything else.

A smile spreaded across her face slowly.

"It's real." She said, laughing slightly.

A smile bloomed on his face as well just before he yanked her into him, sitting up to hold her as closely as he could. She didn't care that it was difficult to breath. It was real. Tears streamed down her face one after another. She didn't have to be strong anymore. Because she did it. She found her way back. As soon as Dean's grip loosened on her, she untangled herself and launched into Sam's arms, laughing as they hugged tightly as well. Pretty soon they were all laughing loudly and together, Elena sandwiched between the two. After a few minutes, a light flicked on.

"What the hell is going on here?" Bobby grumbled from his wheelchair, glaring at them.

Then he realized what was different about the scene in front of him.

"What the…" he didn't get to get it out before Elena was hugging him, bent over the wheelchair.

"Hi Bobby." She said, emotional again.

"How did you swing this, girl?" he asked.

"I don't know. And I don't care." She said, grinning happily as she pulled away.

Suddenly she was yanked back into Dean's arms and he was holding her tightly from behind as if he didn't want to let her go just in case she was taken away again. They all just stared at her, not wanting to blink or let her out of their sights. They all had stupid grins on their faces. After thirty minutes of silent staring and more hugs, Elena could tell that they were exhausted.

"You should go to bed." She said.

They all looked at her with slightly panicked expressions.

"I'll be here in the morning, I promise." She assured them. "I dare any angel to try to take me away from you again."

After a little more coaxing, they all agreed to go back to bed. She took Dean's hand and led him to the stairs, only one thing on her mind. She needed to be with them. They walked into the room wordlessly and immediately began stripping each other. He understood as much as she did. When he laid her down, he saw the amulet around her neck.

"You…" he said.

"I still have hope that we can stop this, Dean." She said, reaching up to stroke his cheek. "And I'll hold onto this for you until you get that hope back."

He stared at her with sad eyes for a moment before leaning down to kiss her, soft and sweet. Then his lips drifted down. Elena's eyes drifted closed as he explored every inch of her body, his lips sliding over her skin and his fingers entertwining with hers. They didn't delve into the sex right away. They spent a good thirty minutes re-learning each other's bodies as if they'd never seen or felt them before. Over and over again, they chanted 'I love you' as if it would make up for the past few months of not being able to really say it face to face. Finally, when he slid into her, their bodies rejoiced. Dean lifted Elena up so that her legs were straddling his thighs and they were both sitting up, their chests pressed together.

Their lips met, alternating between passionate and rough and soft kissing. Her fingers threaded through his hair as his gripped her hips to help her move on top of him. They tried to keep their moans of pleasure hushed, not wanting to bother Bobby and Sam. But everyone once in a while a cry of ecstasy would escape one of their open mouths and was quickly hushed by the other. They didn't care. They were together and the next being to try to tear them apart would find themselves on the receiving end of a lot of anger. They were together again and they would remain that way for a very long time.

* * *

**Author's Note: Whew! You guys… that was an intense chapter for me to write. I'm sorry if I didn't do their reunion justice. You should all be very happy because I wasn't going to have Elena become visible again until 'Swan Song'. But this came to me as I was writing and I had to do it. So you are very lucky that I was feeling this reunion. Please review!**

**A little preview: Katherine shows up in either the next chapter or the one after that. ;)**


	23. Chapter 23

**Disclaimer: I do not own TVD or Supernatural**

**Thanks to gallifrayenconsultingdetecti ve, RHatch89, Nyssandria, Dark Alana, diehardromantic, chiwi, DrawingMyHeartOut, Dark-Supernatural-Angel, slayerdiaries, imusic247, MrsMaeveSalvatoreMikaelson, and the three guests for reviewing!**

**To whom it may concern, I can guarantee you that won't be the last time Elena has a little visit to heaven. She'll see plenty of people in time.**

**To Dark-Supernatural-Angel, I made it to where Jeremy didn't see the ghosts or anything so that's why he couldn't see Elena.**

**To Dark Alana and the guest, I don't agree with how they represent God either but, I apologize, but it was necessary to include it in my story.**

**To the guest, no Elena's powers are still developing but not with heaven's help. Just with Gabriel and Castiel's help.**

**A few things:**

**1. This chapter is going to be largely not in Elena's point of view for a very good reason.**

**2. Just a warning, I know that all of you are excited about the soulmates conversation. That does not happen in this chapter. There's already so much going on that I didn't want to have to squeeze it in here half-assed. It will happen very soon. I promise.**

**3. Elena's outfit is on my profile.**

* * *

**Music:**

**I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles) – The Proclaimers (car scene)**

**Wheel in the Sky – Journey (demon battle scene)**

**Bring on the Wonder – Susan Enan (final scene in the field)**

* * *

Elena sighed happily as she stared down at Dean. She was dismayed at first to learn that the whole not sleeping thing had transferred over when she became visible. Instead of going into Dean's mind, she just contented herself with watching him sleep in between lying there and just letting him hold her. It was creepy and she knew it but she wanted to give Dean a break and let him have some peace in his mind, especially since he would wake up and she would be there. When it reached about one o'clock in the afternoon, she attempted to twist out of his arms. He only held her tighter. She could have broken his grip easily but she didn't want to.

"Dean." She said softly, reaching out to brush her hand across his cheek.

He mumbled something and moved in closely to her, burying his face in her t-shirt. After he'd gone to sleep, she conjured up some clothes for the both of them. They'd had more than one embarrassing mishap when Sam forgot to knock and immediately had to clap a hand over his eyes at their states of undress.

"Dean… wake up." She murmured, running her fingers lightly through his hair.

"No." he grumbled, wrapping his arms around her waist and turning so that she was lying on top of him with her face hovering over his.

Her hair fell over his head and he contented himself with burying his face in it as much as he could. Elena let out a laugh and sat up, unwinding his arms from around her waist.

"It's time to wake up." She said, running her fingers down his bare torso.

She just put him in a pair of cotton pajama pants, unwilling to cover up his beautiful torso. It was far too hard to cover it up when she loved running her fingers over the rigid muscles to feel them tense and relax under her fingers. His eyes opened a sliver and he squinted up at her. After he stared at her for a moment, his eyes opened more and his hands lifted to rub them. Then he sat up slowly, his hand reaching up to run through her hair.

"I missed this." he said, referring to them waking up together.

"Me too." She agreed, wrapping her arms loosely over his shoulders.

His hand moved lower and his thumb brushed across her lips.

"You are so beautiful. If it's possible, you are more beautiful than I've ever seen you." he said, his green eyes staring into hers.

Elena suddenly found herself overcome with emotion again and, before she knew it, tears were stinging her eyes.

"Hey…" he breathed, seeing the wetness welling up.

"No, I'm happy. I'm really, really happy." She assured him.

Then she pulled him in and pressed her lips to his.

"I can hardly believe that this is real." She mumbled against his soft lips, her eyes closed as she placed her forehead to his.

His eyes opened and she saw something in them. A hint. It wasn't happiness. In fact, it was sadness. It was hesitation. As if he was waiting for something.

"Dean? Are you okay?" she asked, concerned.

The next thing she knew, the look was gone and he smiled a very real smile. At least it looked real but after seeing what she just did, Elena couldn't be sure.

"I'm great. Better than great, you're here." He said, silencing her worries with another kiss.

When they drew away after a few moments, she smiled and let her hand stroke his cheek.

"How about you get in the shower and dressed? I can go and make us all some lunch." She suggested.

"Don't you want to take a shower?" Dean asked.

Elena grinned and scrambled off of his lap.

"I don't have to." She said, snapping her fingers.

His eyes widened when he saw that her hair was clean and styled and that she was wearing entirely new clothing.

"That's a helluva trick. Is that where these pants came from?" he asked, gesturing to the soft pajama pants.

"Yep." She nodded, leaning down to kiss him lightly before turning to walk out of the room.

When she got to the door, she glanced back. The look was back and she didn't like it at all.

* * *

By the time she got the food cooking after making a quick pop in and out of the nearest grocery store, Elena heard movement outside of the kitchen. She looked up in time to see Sam stumble in followed by Bobby, both of whom looked tired and she could tell that they'd simply followed their noses. They had slept just as late as Dean, which they never got to do.

"Sit at the table. I'll bring you some in a few minutes." She laughed.

"God, you're amazing." Sam mumbled, inhaling the smell of spaghetti saucse happily before sitting down.

"I second that." Bobby agreed.

Elena grinned over at them as she took the garlic toast out of the oven and the noodles off of the stove.

"You're just saying that because you're hungry." She said, fixing up four plates of food.

"No, they're saying that cause it's true." Dean said, walking in freshly showered and in his clothes.

He walked to her and turned her around, pushing her against the counter, kissing her deeply. Elena responded in kind, smiling against his lips as her fingers wound in his still damp hair.

"Seriously?" Bobby and Sam said at the same time.

"Shut it." Elena and Dean fired back.

To be honest, the other two didn't mind. In fact, Dean and Elena could make out all over the place if it meant that the two of them would be happy. But they preferred that they didn't have to see it. Moments later, they were gathered around the table all eating and basically enjoying each other's company. When they were done eating, Elena stood to take the dishes to the sink.

"You don't have to clean too, Elena." Sam said, standing up to help her.

"I'm not cleaning a damn thing, Sam Winchester. I learned a few tricks while I was pulling a Casper." She said with a wink.

She snapped her fingers and all of the dishes were suddenly sitting on the counter looking pristine.

"Now that is badass." Sam said, pulling her into a hug.

Elena sighed happily and hugged him back.

"Hey! Hands off my girl!" Dean said jokingly, smirking at them as he leaned against the counter.

He knew how important Sam was to Elena and vice versa. He wasn't about to even come close to taking that away from them. Elena laughed when Sam flipped him off and kissed the top of Elena's head before releasing her. She stepped backwards into Dean's arms, leaning against his chest as his arms wrapped around her stomach.

"What are we doing today?" Elena asked, knowing that she had to have a talk with Dean about them being soulmates.

"Well if everything goes our way, we stick around here, rejoice in the fact that you're back, and try to forget about the apocalypse for one day." Dean suggested.

They were interrupted from answering by the sound of Bobby's phone ringing. Dean sighed as Bobby turned to roll himself into the study.

"But things rarely, if ever, go our way." he muttered and Elena rubbed his arm soothingly.

"Ellen and Jo found a lot of demon activity happening around Blue Earth, Minnesota. You need to go help 'em cause they can't handle it all by themselves. They're on their way there right now." Bobby said, rolling back into the kitchen after he hung up the phone.

* * *

Elena sent Dean and Sam out to get their weapons ready and she remained behind with Bobby.

"How you feeling?" he asked, looking up at her.

"I'm feeling fine, Bobby. I need you to look something up." She said, bending down to squat next to him as she pulled her jacket on.

"Anything." He nodded.

"I need you to find out anything you can about soulmates. What they are and how they work." She said.

His eyes widened and he glanced out the door at Dean. She looked his way as well, watching as he loaded salt rounds into all of the shotguns.

"You and Dean?" Bobby confirmed.

"That's what I'm told. And before I tell him about it, cause I know he's gonna freak out, I need to know everything I can about the topic. I'm not asking you to keep this a secret, Bobby. I certainly don't intend to. I just need to know exactly what it means and what the implications are so that I can reassure Dean as soon as he finds out." she explained, turning her head back to look at him.

"I'll read up on it." the older hunter said, nodding.

She smiled and leaned up, kissing his cheek.

"Thanks, Bobby." She said gratefully.

She picked up her dagger and its sheath off of the counter where she'd laid it and began to tie it around her belt loop.

"Is that the special knife that the angels gave you?" Bobby asked, looking interested.

"Yep." Elena nodded, pulling it out and handing it to him.

"This is a beauty. There's no damage to it at all." He said.

"I don't think it can be damaged. It's been tossed around good since I got it. No scratched or anything." Elena said, watching as he admired it.

"Well, at least something good came from those sons of bitches." He commented, handing it back to her.

"Yeah." She scoffed, twirling it in her hand before shoving it into the sheath.

Then she grabbed her gun and shoved it into the back of her jeans.

"See you later, Bobby." She said, saluting him with two fingers.

"You take care of those boys!" he called after her.

"I always do." She said with a smile as she descended the stairs backwards.

"You take care of yourself." Bobby added on.

"I'll try my best." Elena nodded, turning to walk to the Impala.

A few minutes later, they were piled in the car. Ellen called Dean telling them to meet them at a certain mile marker. Elena was in the passenger seat and Sam was in the back.

"What are you doing?" Dean asked when she started messing with the radio.

"I haven't had any choice in what you two listen to for two whole months. It's been driving me insane." Elena said with a grin.

The older Winchester watched warily as Sam grinned, ready for whatever torture Elena was going to put on for Dean. When the song came on, Dean's face eyes widened and he shook his head.

"No." he whispered, sounding traumatized.

"Yep!" Elena nodded triumphantly.

"Baby, they don't mean to torture you. I'm so sorry. First 'Mickey'… now this…" he said, rubbing the steering wheel comfortingly.

"When I wake up yeah I know I'm gonna be… I'm gonna be the man who wakes up next to you!" Sam started off singing, much to Elena's surprise.

"Don't encourage her, Sammy." Dean mumbled pleadingly as he sang.

Elena laughed and shook her head, glad that everything seemed to be nearing normalcy.

"When I go out yeah I know I'm gonna be… I'm gonna be the man who goes along with you!" She sang loudly, reaching back to give Sam a high five.

"If I get drunk yes I know I'm gonna be… I'm gonna be the man who gets drunk next to you!" the two sang together, pointing at Dean and causing a scowl to form on his face.

Both of them began laughing at his foul reaction but cut their chuckles off when the chorus came, half singing and half shouting as loud as they could.

"But I would walk five hundred miles… and I would walk five hundred more! Just to be the man who walked a thousand miles… to fall down at your door!"

"This ride is going to be torture." Dean whimpered over and over again as they continued to sing.

* * *

When they were about ten minutes away from the mile marker, they were all in somewhat of a good mood. Then they saw the demons. They seemed to be waiting on them. They were lined up perfectly. Ellen's car was parked a little ways away from them and the two women were standing there, shotguns in both of their hands. Dean didn't even bother to turn off they car. They all just jumped out.

"What's going on?" Elena demanded, running up to stand next to Jo and Ellen as Dean and Sam grabbed guns from the trunk.

"No idea. They're just standing there. They haven't attacked." Jo said, her hands gripping her gun.

"We just got here about five minutes ago." Ellen informed her from Jo's other side.

Dean and Sam walked up, the former handing Elena her shotgun. Their eyes swept over the crowd, taking in their black eyes. There was at least fifty of them, if not more. Behind them, the radio switched to another song in the Impala. 'Wheel In the Sky' began blaring out of the speakers loudly. Elena glanced over at Dean, who looked vaguely amused.

"Well we have theme music, apparently. What do we do now?" she asked.

"Considering that they're advancing on us, I don't think we have much choice." Dean said, cocking his gun.

They turned to see that this was, in fact, the case. Elena held up her gun as the demons began walking forward.

"Why the hell are there so many demons here?" Ellen said.

"There has to be something going on in Blue Earth." Sam offered.

"We'll figure that out after we get out of this." Elena said, looking over her shoulder to see more demons crowding around behind them, effectively circling them.

"**If** we get out of this." Jo corrected her.

"Yeah, I was trying not to say that." Elena said.

The first demon leapt at them just as the chorus began on the song.

* * *

Thirty minutes later, they were all nearing exhaustion. Ellen was collapsed against her car with a near-fatal slash on her stomach, blood spilling out too quickly. Elena was standing in front of her, defending her against any demons who would finish her off. She didn't have enough time to heal the other woman. Every time she took down one demon, another would jump on her.

"Elena! We can't hold them off anymore! We gotta get out of here!" she heard Dean's voice yell.

She shoved her dagger into the sheath and threw the shotgun in the backseat of Ellen's car. In the next moment, she threw her hands out, knowing that what she was about to do would weaken her. It would also make her the focus of the demons. Dean and Sam could get out. She would be screwed unless Gabriel finally heard her screaming for him in her head. She concentrated on the demons and threw them backwards telepathically, clearing a path to Jo. She stumbled forward, her mind whizzing as she grabbed Jo and hauled her back. The demons formed a wall between them and Sam and Dean, who were clambering into the Impala.

"Leave! We have to go the other way! We'll find you!" Elena yelled as her and Jo helped Ellen into the backseat.

"Elena!" she heard them yell.

"Go!" she shouted again, climbing in the backseat behind Ellen.

Jo took off, hitting demons left and right as they sped down the road away from them and in the opposite direction of Dean and Sam. Elena sighed with relief when her insticts told her that Dean and Sam were all right… for now.

* * *

"Drive faster, Dean." Sam said desperately as they sped towards the town.

"I can't! Are you okay?" Dean said, looking over at Sam who was bleeding in several places.

"Yeah, I'm amazing." He shot back, leaning his head back with a grimace.

Dean shook his head and looked out at the road, knowing exactly how his brother felt.

"You ever seen that many?" he grumbled.

"No. No way, not in one place." Sam said, shaking his head and looking back to see if the demons were following them, as they most likely were.

"I wonder if Elena, Jo, and Ellen got out okay, you should call… what the hell?" Dean cut off.

They both looked to the road in front of them to see several cars flipped on their sides and serving as a blockade. Dean slammed on his brakes.

"Damn it!" he growled.

Suddenly the windows were broken and three straggler demons began attacking them. All at once, a few spotlights switched on and water began to spout out of a fire engine that pulled up. The demons screamed as it hit them and Sam and Dean scrambled back into the Impala to cover themselves. The sound of an exorcism that both of them recognized but didn't hear a lot streamed out of a speaker on the fire engine. They watched with surprise as black smoke poured out of the demons' mouths and the bodies collapsed to the ground. The brothers peeked out of the windows, their eyes wide.

"Well that's something you don't see every day." Dean commented.

"You two all right?" one of them men asked as they climbed out of the car.

"Peachy." Dean sighed.

"Be careful. It's…dangerous around here." The same man warned them before they turned to go off.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait." Dean said, chasing after them.

"No need to thank us."

"No, hold up a sec! Who are you?" he demanded, causing them to turn.

"We're the Sacrament Lutheran Militia." The man answered.

"I'm sorry… the what?" Dean said, his eyebrow raised as Sam simply watched.

"I hate to tell you this, but those were demons and this is the Apocalypse. So… buckle up."

* * *

"I think they're chasing us. They'll catch up with us anytime." Jo said as Elena bent over an unconscious Ellen, healing her.

It took her longer than it should have because she was weakened by the blast of telepathic power she sent out to locate Jo.

"Just drive drive us to a safe spot that will keep us hidden for a few hours." Elena sighed, pushing away from Ellen as the woman's eyes flickered open.

She was healed.

"Why?" Jo asked, looking back.

"Because… you can't take on those demons alone… and I'm about to pass out." Elena said weakly just before she slumped onto the seat.

* * *

The men hunched over the trunk once Dean opened it, nodding as they saw the many weapons lined up.

"Looks like we're in the same line of business." Sam informed them.

"And among colleagues. That's a police-issued shotgun. That truck is, uh… inspired. Where'd you guys pick up all this crap?" Dean asked, looking at them.

"You know you pick things up along the way." the man who introduced himself as Rob said

"Guys, come on. This whole corner of the state is nuts with demon omens. We just want to help. That's all." Dean assured them.

"We're on the same team here. Just talk to us." Sam pleaded.

They exchanged hesitant glances.

"Follow us." Rob finally nodded, gesturing to them.

* * *

Elena groaned as she felt someone shaking her.

"What?" she grumbled, her eyes opening.

"We need your help." Jo said, her face swimming into view above her.

She sat up slowly and then froze, seeing what exactly they needed her help with.

"I told you to hide." She sighed, sliding out of the car slowly.

They were sitting in the middle of a field and demons were surrounding them.

"I thought they wouldn't find us here. Night is falling and…" Ellen shrugged.

Elena sighed and looked out at the demons, wondering why they weren't attacking again. What were they waiting for?

"We have instructions not to kill you. We only want to bring you back to our father." One of the demons said.

Jo and Ellen looked at Elena with wide eyes.

"I'm assuming he means you." Ellen said.

"Yeah, he does." Elena sighed.

* * *

The town of Blue Earth seemed like a pretty deserted place until they got to the church. They stared up at the building appraisingly. There were four guards, two at the gate and two by the door. All of them were packing shotguns. A red devil's trap was painted at the gate. Dean and Sam finished up cleaning the blood off of them and changing their shirts before walking into the church with everyone else.

"Who would have thought the Apocalypse could be so romantic? Marriage, family… it's a blessing. Especially in times like this. So hold on to that." the man at the front, with four couples surrounding him, said.

Dean looked around to see that every single person in the room was packing. Even the scruffy looking pastor had a thigh holster.

"Wedding?" Sam scoffed. "Seriously?"

"Yeah. We've had eight so far this week." One of the men, Paul, said from behind them.

Dean and Sam grimaced, shaking their heads.

* * *

"So Rob tells me you boys hunt demons." The Pastor, Gideon, said as they stood outside the church and watched the people going off to enjoy their wedding nights.

"Uh… yes sir." Sam nodded respectfully.

"You missed a few." The man said with a smirk

"Yeah. Tell us about it. Any idea why they're here?" Sam asked.

Gideon shook his head, sighing.

"They sure seem to like us, though." He said.

Suddenly they looked out into the distance, able to see for miles around the town since the church was on a hill, and saw a bright flash of white light that took up a large expanse of the sky before it disappeared.

"What the hell?" Dean said, shocked.

Gideon didn't look alarmed. In fact, he looked as though he was used to it.

"Follow me, gentlemen." He said, gesturing at them.

Dean and Sam exchanged wary looks before following him. He took them into the back of the church.

"So you're a preacher?" Dean asked, shaken up by the light as they walked towards a closed door.

"Not what you expected, huh?" Gideon asked.

"Well, dude, you're packing." Dean reminded him.

"Strange times." He nodded.

When they walked into the room, they saw that it was sort of a homebase/artillary room. There were multiple people cleaning guns and making salt rounds.

"Is that a twelve-year-old packing salt rounds?" Dean asked, noticing one of the younger inhabitants of the room.

"Everybody pitches in." Gideon nodded.

"So, the whole church?" Sam questioned.

"The whole town." He corrected him.

"A whole town full of hunters. I don't know whether to run screaming or buy a condo." Dean muttered under his breath but not quite as quietly as he'd hoped.

"Well the demons were killing us. We had to do something." Gideon shrugged.

"So why not call the National Guard?" Sam asked.

"We were told not to." He replied quickly.

"By who?"

The pastor didn't say anything, looking unsure.

"Come on, Padre. You're as locked and loaded as we've ever seen. And that exorcism was Enochian. Someone's telling you something." Dean said, raising an eyebrow at him.

"Look, I'm sorry, I, uh, I can't discuss it." he said, his eyes shifting past them and back.

"Dad, it's okay." A new voice, a female one, said from behind Sam and Dean.

They turned to see that a young woman with a pretty face was standing there with a slight smile.

"Leah…" Gideon began warningly.

"It's Sam and Dean Winchester. They're safe. I know all about them." She said with a smile.

"You do?" Dean asked, looking suspicious.

"Sure. From the angels." She nodded.

"The angels. Awesome." Dean scoffed, rolling his eyes.

"Don't worry. They can't see you here. The… marks on your ribs, right?" Leah asked, gesturing to their chests.

"So you know all about us because angels told you?" Sam asked, his eyebrows raised high.

"Yes. Among other things." she nodded.

"Like the snappy little exorcism spell." Dean guessed.

"And they show me where the demons are going to be, before it happens. How to fight back." Leah confirmed.

"Never been wrong. Not once. She's very special." Gideon said, throwing an arm over her shoulders.

"Dad…" she said, embarrassed at his bragging.

"And let me guess. Before you see something, you get a really bad migraine, you see flashing lights?" Dean questioned.

Her smile fell a little.

"How'd you know?" she asked.

"Cause you're not the first prophet we've met." Dean said, nodding as he glanced over at Sam.

Gideon looked over at Leah.

"The bright light… was it…?" he began.

"No, it wasn't the angels this time." Leah said, shaking her head.

"The angels?" Dean said, confused.

"Yes, they'll sometimes come and help fight the demons. That bright light you saw, that's what we see before we find a field full of dead demons. But more always seem to come. They're limitless." she sighed.

"It looked like an angels grace." Dean nodded, looking at his younger brother.

"But you're saying it wasn't angels this time." Sam said.

"No, but you know who it was." Leah said.

They thought about it before exchanging a wide-eyed look.

"Elena." they said at the same time.

Suddenly they heard footsteps running towards the room and the door slammed open.

"Someone is here. She just appeared outside the church. We don't know what to do." Paul said, looking at Gideon.

Dean and Sam were running out before the man finished his sentence. Elena was standing there swaying on the spot. She looked horrible. Blood was leaking out of her nose, ears, and mouth. She was half unconscious, probably using the last of her energy to zap them there.

"She's with us." Sam said to Gideon, who'd followed them along with Leah, as Dean ran forward and caught Elena just as she began to fall to the ground..

Dean ran Elena into with the rest following him and laid her on one of the pews at the very front. When he had her down, he bent over her and smoothed her hair off of her face.

"What the hell happened. Where are Ellen and Jo?" Dean wondered.

Sam shrugged and they looked to see Leah bending over Elena.

"Amazing." She murmured, reaching down to touch her cheek.

Suddenly Elena's eyes popped open. She grabbed Leah's wrist and was up to a standing position before any of them could process what was happening. She had Leah shoved against a wall and her dagger against her throat in the next moment.

"Elena!" Dean yelled, darting forward to pry her off of the prophet.

Leah didn't struggle with her, looking shocked. They'd drawn a crowd and they all had their guns pointed at Elena.

"It's okay, she's not going to hurt me." Leah assured them, causing them to relax a little bit.

Elena didn't waver from her position. Dean was gently pulling at her shoulders. Elena's head suddenly whipped around to glare at him and they were entirely electric blue instead of the normal dark brown.

"Elena…" he said, shocked.

"She has to die!" she said loudly, turning back to Leah and raising her hand high in the air to bring the blade down.

Before she could, her eyes rolled up into the back of her head and she fainted backwards, Sam catching her. They got her back on the pew and Dean looked at Leah.

"I'm so sorry. She's probably really out of it…" he began.

"She's your guardian, Dean. She probably just misread the situation and thought that you were in danger, or that I was attacking her. I shouldn't have reached for her like that. I can imagine that her nerves are standing on end." Leah said assuringly.

Dean nodded and picked up her dagger, sliding it back into her sheath before squatting next to her and brushing her hair out of her face once again.

* * *

Dean and Sam were sitting at a table in Paul's bar. Gideon was back at the church and they volunteered to watch Elena. Dean wanted to protest but they knew that they had to talk about this where the church-goers weren't listening. Sam had walked away to call Cas at Dean's insistance. They needed help with Elena to figure out what the hell she'd done as well as why demons were attacking this town so much. Dean had tried to get a hold of Ellen and Jo but kept getting their voicemails. It worried them but they couldn't go investigate, not with all the demons out there.

"You have reached the voicemail box of…" the automated voice said on the other end of the phone.

"I don't understand why, why do you want me to say my name?" Cas' voice came over the phone as Sam's face betrayed his confusion and amusement.

He heard the sound of random buttons being pressed before he was able to record a message.

"Cas, hey, uh, it's me. So we are in Blue Earth, Minnesota, and um, we could use a little help. Something is wrong with Elena and… I… hope you get this." Sam said, unsure of what else to say.

As soon as he hung up, he forgot that the angel didn't know that Elena was visible to them and that the message would probably cause him confusion. He shrugged and shoved the phone in his pocket, turning to get beers for all of them.

"Busy night?" Sam asked as Paul set two beers on the bar for him.

"I'm telling you, since The End started, it's been like one long last call. That round's on me." Paul nodded at the bottles.

"Thanks." Sam replied, grabbing them and walking back to the table where Dean was sitting.

He handed his older brother his beer before sitting down.

"So, did you get a hold of Cas?" Dean asked after taking a long drink.

"Yeah, I left him a message. I think. So uh, what's your theory? Why all of the demon hits?" Sam questioned, wanting to toss around ideas.

"I don't know. Gank the girl? The prophet, maybe?" Dean shrugged.

Sam shook his head, scoffing lightly before taking a drink.

"What?" Dean asked, staring at him.

"Just these angels are sending these people to do their dirty work." He sighed, sounding a little angry.

"Yeah. And?" Dean shrugged, taking another long sip.

Sam stared at him for a moment.

"And they could get ripped to shreds." He reminded Dean.

Dean smirked and shook his head.

"We're all gonna die, Sam. In like a month… maybe two. I mean it. This is the end of the world, but these people aren't freaking out. In fact they're running to the exit in an orderly fashion. I don't know that that's such a bad thing." He said.

"Who says they're all gonna die? What ever happened to us saving them?" Sam asked, even more pissed.

He really thought that his brother would get better now that Elena was back. Before Dean could answer, bells began to toll and the people all got up, heading towards the exit.

"Something I said?" Dean wondered, looking around.

"Paul. What's going on?" Sam asked as the bar owner passed them.

"Leah's had another vision." Paul informed them.

"Wanna go to church?" Sam asked, pushing his issues with Dean aside to focus on what was going on.

"You know me… downright pious." Dean sighed, taking on last drink before standing up.

* * *

"Three miles off Talmadge Road." Gideon said as everyone was gathered in the room.

Elena was in the back lying on a couch in Gideon's office. Leah leaned in from where she was standing next to him and whispered something in his ear.

"Five miles." He corrected himself, nodding at her as she sat down. "There are demons gathered. I… don't know how many, but a lot. Thank you, Leah. So, who's going to join me?"

"Wouldn't miss it." Rob volunteered immediately, pointing between him, his son, and his wife.

"Someone's got to cover Rob's ass." Paul said, smirking at his best friend.

"We're in, Padre." Dean said, gesturing to Sam, who sighed.

"Thank you. I'd like to offer a prayer. Our Father in Heaven…" the pastor said, bowing his head.

"Yeah, not so much." Dean muttered, making Sam roll his eyes.

"Help us to fight in your name. We ask that you protect us from all servants of evil. Guide our hands in defeating them, and deliver us home, safely. Thank you, Amen." Gideon said before lifting his head.

The brothers took their Impala, following everyone else to the cabin outside of the town and in the middle of nowhere. Dean and Sam were following the group into the building as Gideon gave them directions. The fight began almost immediately, Sam manning the demon-killing knife as the rest used salt rounds. Dylan, Gideon, Jane, and Rob were using the Enochian exorcism to get rid of demons. It was over almost as quickly as it started, Dean killing the last demon. They didn't waste any time, turning to walk out of the house.

"I guess that's what it's like, huh?" Sam sighed.

"What?" Dean questioned, looking over at him.

"Having backup. A lot of back up." Sam said.

* * *

_Elena was lying in soft grass staring up at the blue sky. For all intents and purposes, it should have been peaceful. But it wasn't. She kept getting whispers in her head. They said the same thing over and over again. 'Kill the whore'. Suddenly a face appeared over hers. It was her own face._

_"Katherine?" she said, her eyes widening._

"_Nope, I'm you. And you need to wake up right now." She said, yanking Elena up to a standing position._

"_What… I'm…" Elena said, looking around._

"_Now!" she yelled, shoving her backwards._

* * *

"Dean. Sam." Dylan called as they stood at the back of the Impala.

He ran over from the truck that everyone else was piled in.

"Yo." Dean said, looking up from where he was placing his sawed off shotgun.

"Hey. So, um, is… is that… is that cool that I get a ride back with you guys?" the young man stammered nervously, smiling at the two men who were his sudden idols.

"Hey, you've saved my ass twice already. One more time, you can drive. Get a beer?" Dean said, grinning back at him.

They were pulling beers out of their cooler that they always had with them when the truck pulled away, leaving them alone.

"Hey…" Dean tossed Dylan one of the beers. "… you earned it. Don't tell your mom."

Dylan grinned at him and nodded.

"Oh, believe me… I will not." He promised Dean before he popped the beer open.

Sam and Dean did the same, clinking their beers together. Suddenly they saw Dylan fly forward to the ground and he screamed.

"Dylan!" Dean yelled.

Suddenly a figure appeared and bent down, yanking him out from underneath the car and tossing him to the side easily. Then she yanked the demon out from underneath the Impala and shoved her against it. They watched as Elena pulled out her knife and held it to her throat.

"Where is Lucifer?" she demanded.

The demon just stared at her. Elena's eyes were back to normal but blazing with fury.

"Where the hell is the devil?" she shouted, pressing it closer.

"I'm not telling you." the demon snapped back.

"What is she doing?" Dylan asked, stumbling over to stand beside Dean and Sam, his heart pounding as he realized how close he just got to dying.

"I will kill you if you don't." Elena threatened, nicking the demon's neck with her knife.

A sizzling noise filled the air and the demon hissed painfully.

"You'll kill me if I do tell you." she fired back.

Elena stared at her for a moment before shrugging.

"If you're not going to tell me anything…" she reared back and slammed her knife into the demon's chest, causing her to flash gold and collapse to the ground once Elena ripped it out.

Dean immediately walked to her as she turned.

"Are you okay?" he asked, putting one hand on either of her cheeks.

"No, I'm not. I don't remember what happened and my head is killing me. My body is drained of energy and I'm having a hard time even keeping myself conscious much less upright." She said bluntly, not having the mental energy to sugarcoat it.

A few drops of blood suddenly slid out of her nose.

"Let's get you back." Dean said, helping her into the car.

"Dean, what happened?" she asked, catching his sleeve before he could pull back.

"I'm not entirely sure. We called Cas to try to get him here. But you did attack a prophet." He said.

Her face screwed up in confusion.

"I don't remember that." Elena admitted softly.

"I think you were delirious." He assured her.

Dylan climbed in the backseat next to her. Dean and Sam were in the front. Dean watched worredly in the rearview mirror as she leaned her head back on the seat.

"Thank you… for saving me." Dylan said, looking over at her.

Elena's eyes opened and she smiled at him.

"It's no problem. I'm Elena." she said, reaching out to shake his hand.

"I'm Dylan." he blushed and nodded, looking out the window as soon as they let go of each other's hands.

It didn't take Elena another minute to drift off into sleep, worrying both Sam and Dean. They knew that she wasn't supposed to be able to sleep.

* * *

As soon as they pulled up to the church, Dean went to the back and shook Elena awake, apologizing as he helped her out of the car. They walked into the church and saw Gideon, Leah, Jane, and Rob with a few others standing around them. Jane and Rob looked distressed.

"Oh my…" Jane ran to Dylan and embraced him tightly, tears on her face.

"Leah had a vision. She told us that you were attacked and killed by a demon." Rob said, hugging Dylan as well.

"No, I almost was… but…" he looked back at Elena, who was leaning heavily on Dean with her eyes open but tired.

"… she saved my life." Dylan said, pointing to her.

Jane pulled away and walked up, hugging Elena.

"Thank you. One of my sons… my Christopher… he already was killed by a demon. Thank you so much for sparing my Dylan." She said as Elena staggered under her weight but hugged her back softly.

"It was nothing." She waved off though she leaned back into Dean for his support.

It was strange to see her like this. It had been so long since she'd needed anyone's help or admitted to being weak at all.

"We were wondering where you wandered off to. It's amazing that you were able to do that." Leah said with a smile, walking forward to talk to Elena.

She stared back hesitantly.

"Elena?" Dean said, wondering if she was all right.

"Yeah? Oh, I'm sorry. It's not a big deal." Elena said, nodding at her as her eyes blinked slowly.

Suddenly Leah's smile disappeared and she collapsed to the ground, a seizure taking over her body. Gideon pushed through and kneeled next to her body. It was gone as quickly as it came and she was trying to sit up.

"Leah, honey? Honey? It's okay sweetie. It's okay." Gideon assured her, trying to keep her down.

"Dad, it's Christopher." Leah said, looking up at Jane and Rob with wide eyes.

"Just rest a minute, huh?" Gideon said, unsure of what she was saying.

"No, listen. Christopher's coming back." Leah said with a smile.

"Jeez." Rob said, shocked by her statement.

"Jane, Rob… it's going to be okay. You'll see Dylan again. When the final day comes, Judgement Day, he'll be resurrected and you'll be together again. We'll all be together. With all our loved ones. We've been chosen. The angels have chosen us. And we will be given paradise on earth. All we have to do is follow the angels' commandments." Dean, Elena, and Sam stared at them warily.

"Gather the townspeople together. I need to tell them what the angels command." Leah said, nodding.

* * *

"No drinking, no gambling, no premarital sex. Dean, they basically just outlawed ninety percent of your personality." Sam said, smirking at him as they walked out of the church along with the other people.

"Yeah, well, whatever. When in Rome." Dean said, gesturing around.

"So, uh… you're cool with it?" the younger brother asked skeptically.

"I'm not cool. I'm not, not cool. I'm not cool with any of this shit that's going on. I'm just, look man, I'm not a prophet. We're not locals. It's not my call. I'll catch up with you." he said, looking back at the church and walking in to go check on Elena.

* * *

They'd placed Elena back in the pastor's office again to let her rest. She didn't go to sleep, forcing her eyes to open. The door suddenly opened and Leah walked in, looking exhausted as well.

"Hello." She nodded at Elena, walking to a chair to sit across from where Elena was stretching across the couch, her head leaning against the back.

"Angel stuff really takes it out of you, huh?" Elena sighed, recognizing the symptoms.

"Can't complain. I mean, you know better than I do and I know you have it worse." Leah said with a soft smile, curling her knees up to her chest.

Elena sighed and shrugged, not wanting to talk about it. She really wished that she knew what happened that she couldn't remember. The last thing she knew, she was standing in the field with the demons surrounding her, Ellen, and Jo. Next thing she knew, she was saving that kid, Dylan, from the demon. Elena looked over at Leah, staring at her, not knowing why she got such a cold feeling when she was around the girl.

"Dean tells me that I attacked you. I'm sorry. I don't know what got into me." she said apologetically, trying to push the feeling to the back of her mind.

"It's nothing. I'm sure you were delirious and confused as to why you were suddenly surrounded by people you didn't know." Leah said with a smile.

Elena nodded and continued to look at her.

"What do you want to ask, Elena?" Leah asked, sensing something.

"The visions… when did you start getting them?" Elena asked.

"Right around the time… well that explosion happened in Maryland. At that abbey? That's night I had my first vision. It was about Lucifer rising. The demons came a month later." she answered.

"Wow… that was a while ago." Elena said, screwing her eyebrows together.

There was a knock on the door and they looked up to see Dean open it.

"Am I interrupting?" he asked, looking between them.

"No, come on in." Leah said with a smile, welcoming him in.

He walked to the couch and Elena pulled her legs up, allowing him to sit. He pulled them back, placing them over his lap. She scooted towards him, bending over and putting her head on his shoulder.

"So… what's on your mind, Dean?" Leah asked, also sensing something with him.

"Don't take this the wrong way but… are you on the level?" he asked.

"About what?" she questioned.

"About paradise." Dean said.

Elena's head tilted to the side so that she could look at Leah.

"What about it?" the girl said.

"I want to know what the angels are telling you. Everything." Dean requested.

"Well, uh…" she began.

"You can skip the rainbows." He interrupted her.

Leah sighed and nodded.

"There's gonna be a prize-fight. And… it's gonna get bad. But after we win… and we will… the planet gets handed over to the chosen. And… it's finally peaceful. No monsters, no disease, no death. You're just… with the people you love." Leah informed them.

"Of course, that's if you can get past the velvet rope. Must be nice… being chosen." Dean nodded, sounding bitter.

Elena's eyes slid closed but she kept listening to the conversation.

"Well, Dean… you're chosen. Both of you." Leah said, sounding like she was smiling.

"Yeah, more like cursed." Dean scoffed and Elena felt a stab of sadness at his words.

He still didn't have any hope or faith.

"Must be hard. Being the Vessel of Heaven and having no hope." Leah sighed, recognizing the problem immediately.

That was the last thing that Elena heard before she drifted off into sleep again.

* * *

Sam looked around as he entered the empty bar, confused as he saw Paul wiping down the counter.

"Hey. So what happened to, uh, the Apocalypse is good for business?" Sam asked, walking to the bar and sitting on a stool.

"Oh yeah, right up until Leah's angel pals banned the good stuff. Wanna help me kill some inventory?" Paul asked, gesturing to the line up of alcohol.

"Sure." Sam nodded, not caring about the ban on drinking.

"Don't get me wrong. I grew up here. I love this town, but uh, well, these holy rollers?" Paul scoffed, shaking his head as he pulled out a bottle of whiskey and two glasses.

"Yeah, yeah, I uh, I noticed you're not the praying type." Sam said, watching as he poured the amber liquid.

"Yeah, well, between you and me, neither are half those guys. A couple of months back, they're all in here, getting wasted, banging the nanny. Now they're all Warriors of God. Cheers." he said, sliding a glass to Sam.

"Cheers." Sam nodded, drinking half the glass in one gulp and relishing in the burn down his throat.

"Look, there's sure as hell demons. And maybe there is a God. I don't know. Fine. But I'm not a hypocrite. I never prayed before and I ain't starting now. If I go to hell, I'm going honest. How about you?" he asked.

"What about me?" Sam replied, looking at him.

"Not a true believer, I take it." Paul said.

"I believe, yeah. I do. I'm just. Pretty sure God stopped caring a long time ago." Sam said.

Both of them scoffed as Paul poured them another drink.

* * *

Sam looked up as he walked in to the motel room that Dean rented, catching sight of Dean lying in the bed with Elena fast asleep next to him. He frowned when he saw how dead to the world she was. They had to figure out what was wrong with her and fast. What bothered him even more was how not bothered Dean looked. Normally he'd be freaking out over Elena's obvious ill health.

"Where you been?" Dean asked, looking over at him with his arms crossed over his chest and his legs spread out on the bed.

He was still fully dressed with his shoes on and everything.

"Drinkin'." Sam replied, pulling his jacket.

"You rebel." Dean smirked.

"I'd have had more, um, but it was curfew." Sam sighed, leaning against the entertainment center and crossing his own arms over his chest.

"Right." Dean nodded, reaching up to rub his eyes.

"You hear they shut down the cell towers?"

"No. That's, uh, news to me." he grumbled, throwing his legs over the side of the bed.

"Yeah. No cable, internet. Total cut off from the corruption of the outside world." Sam informed him.

"Huh." Dean said simply.

Sam stared at him for a minute, wondering why he wasn't getting a reaction out of him when this would usually make Dean second guess something.

"Don't you get it? First of all, we can't get ahold of Ellen and Jo now. Second of all, they're turning this place into some kind of fundamentalist compound." Sam explained slowly as if to a child.

"No, I get it." Dean said.

"And all you've got's a 'hmm'? What's wrong with you?" he demanded.

"I get it. I just don't care." Dean shrugged.

"What?" Sam said, his voice flat with a hint of anger.

"What difference does it make?" Dean asked, looking up at him.

"It makes a hell of a…" Sam broke off, shaking his head and scoffing.

"At what point does this become too far for you? Stoning? Poisoned Kool-Aid? The angels are toying with these people!" He exclaimed, walking to sit in the bed across from Dean.

"Angel world, angel rules, man." Dean sighed, standing up and walking off.

"And since when is that okay with you?" Sam demanded, turning to stare at him.

"Since the angels got the only lifeboats on the Titanic. I mean, who exactly is supposed to come along and save these people? It was supposed to be us, but we can't do it." Dean said, pouring himself a cup of coffee.

"So what? You wanna, you wanna just want to stop fighting, roll over?" Sam demanded, disbelief coloring his voice over what he was hearing.

"I don't know, maybe." Dean said, shrugging as he leaned against the entertainment center.

Sam turned away from him.

"Don't say that." Sam murmured softly.

"Why not?" Dean asked.

"Cause you can't do this!" he yelled, jumping up to face Dean.

"Actually, I can."

"No you can't. You can't do this to me." Dean stared at him, blinking a few times.

"You can't do this to Elena. Remember her? The girl you love? How do you think she'd be reacting to this if she was awake?" Sam demanded.

"Elena? Let me tell you one thing about Elena. She is like this… cause of us. You know what's bad Sam? What's worse than losing my faith or hope? The fact that I didn't get a single bit of it back when she turned visible! The fact that I was waiting for this to happen! For something else to take away one of the best things I got going in my life! Cause that's how my life works! She's being taken away from me again and there is nothing I can do about it!" Dean yelled, throwing his cup against the wall.

"Dean… Elena's gonna be fine. As soon as…"

"I swear to God, if you say one thing to me about an angel…" Dean said.

Sam sighed and shook his head, changing the subject with his next words.

"I got one thing, one thing, keeping me going. You think you're the only one white-knuckling it here, Dean? I can't count on anyone else. I can't do this alone." Sam said.

Dean stared at him for a moment before his eyes flashed to Elena.

"Dean." Sam said as he turned to walk out the door, picking up his jacket on the way.

"I got to clear my head." he said.

"It's past curfew!" Sam called as he walked out.

"It's past curfew." He sighed again, turning to look at Elena's unconscious form.

* * *

There was a lot of activity going on in the back room of the church when Leah came barging in, tears running down her face.

"Leah, what's wrong?" Elise asked, jumping up.

"Daddy, can I talk to you for a second?" she asked her father, walking straight to him.

"Of course." Gideon said. "Leah, honey, what is it?"

He reached out and put his hands on her shoulders.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry. They're just so angry." She cried.

"Who's angry?" he asked.

"The angels." She answered, staring up at him fearfully.

"Why are they angry?" Gideon asked.

"They said… they said that we can't go to paradise." She wailed.

"What? But we're doing everything they say!" Jane argued, starting forward.

"They said they gave clear commandments, but some people aren't listening." Leah explained, looking devastated.

"Who, Leah?" Rob asked, standing as well.

She let out another wail of sadness.

* * *

Sam sighed as he dug around in his back for the books he brought. He might as well do some research as he waited on Dean to get home.

"I got your message." He heard, causing him to look up.

Cas was standing by the fridge and looking into it. Sam sighed with relief at seeing him.

"It was long, your message. And I find the sound of your voice grating." The angel informed him, closing the fridge and swaying on the spot.

"What's wrong with you? Are you… drunk?" Sam asked, raising an eyebrow at him.

"No!" he said indignantly, stumbling further into the room.

"Yes." He changed his mind.

"What the hell happened to you?" Sam asked, watching him lean against the wall.

"I found a liquor store." Cas informed him.

"And?"

"And I drank it. Why'd you call me?" he said, moving further into the room.

Sam caught and steadied him as he stumbled a little.

"Whoa. There you go. Easy. Are you okay?" he asked.

Castiel stared up at him for a moment before gesturing for him to bend down a little. He moved his mouth up to his ear.

"Don't ask stupid questions." he said grumpily. "Tell me what you need."

He walked to the bed that Elena was sleeping on, her state not quite occuring to him as something strange yet.

"There have been these… these demon attacks. Massive, right on the edge of town. And we can't figure out why they're…" Sam explained.

"Any sign of angels?" Cas asked, looking up at him after staring at Elena for a moment, trying to figure out what was strange about her.

"Sort of. They've been speaking to this prophet." Sam informed him.

Cas looked up at him with a furrowed brow.

"She's sleeping." He said, pointing at her.

"Yeah, we don't really know why. She showed up bleeding and she keeps passing out every time she tries to use her power or really do anything." Sam said.

He focused on him, confused.

"You can see her?" he asked.

"Yeah, we don't really know what that is either." Sam nodded.

"This all would have been more important that the information about the demons and a prophet. Who is the prophet?" Cas asked, scooting over to place a hand on Elena's forehead.

"This girl, Leah Gideon." Sam said, watching as he checked on Elena.

"She's not a prophet." Cas informed him.

"I'm pretty sure she is. Visions, headaches… the whole package." Sam argued.

"The names of all the prophets, they're seared into my brain. Leah Gideon is not one of them." The angel said, turning to him.

"Then what is she?" Sam asked after a moment.

* * *

Dean was walking when he heard smashing glass and raised voices. He turned and saw lights on in Paul's bar. When he walked in, he saw Gideon between Paul and Rob, who was pushing Paul against the bar with a shotgun.

"Please, guys, guys, guys!" Gideon said, trying to pry them away from each other.

"I'm not going to tell you again!" Paul shouted.

"Take a breath, both of you!" Gideon said, finally pushing them away from each other.

"You come onto my property, spouting some kind of crazy…"

"Sorry, Paul. There's no other way!" Rob interrupted Paul desperately.

"Come on! What country is this, huh?" Paul shot back, glaring at his former friend.

"Need a hand, Padre?" Dean asked, stepping forward.

"Just, everybody cool down for a minute!" Gideon said, stopping the voices.

"Cool down, hmm? My friends are trying to run me out of town. Do you think I should cool down?" Paul demanded, facing Dean.

"I'm sorry, Paul. It is not our choice." Rob said, shaking his head.

"Oh, come on. That's bull." Paul snapped.

"You've got to go… for everyone's sake!" Rob said desperately.

"We grew up together. I stood up at your wedding!" Paul argued.

"Yes, you did. But that was then. And now you're standing against the flock." Jane threw in from where she was standing at the side of the tussle with a bunch of other people.

"That's not true. I fight with you." he said, looking around at them.

"This is a town of believers, Paul. You are not a believer." Jane said.

"Don't make this hard for us." Rob threw in.

"Hard for you? No. This is my home. You want me out of here? You'll have to drag me out." Paul snapped proudly as he walked backwards.

The crowd stared at him for a moment before they started to advance on him, Rob in the lead.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, you don't want to do this." Dean said, grabbing his shirt and yanking him backwards.

"Get out of my…" Rob began to struggle with Dean.

Dean punched him, causing him to collapse to the ground. As he held him against the bar, trying to keep from going after Paul, a gunshot filled the air. Everyone froze and turned to see Jane holding a gun up and Paul collapsed against the bar with a wound in his chest.

"No one's gonna stop me from seeing my son again." She breathed as Gideon and Dean ran to Paul.

Gideon immediately checked for a pulse as Dean tried to put his hands over the wound. It was no hope. Paul was dead the second he hit the ground. Dean looked up, glaring at Jane as she lowered the gun slowly with a shaking breath.

* * *

As soon as the sun began peeking out over the horizon, Dean came in. Elena was still unconscious and Cas and Sam were waiting for Dean to show up.

"We went out looking for… you alright?" Sam said, noticing the blood on his hands.

Yeah. It's… it's not my blood." Dean said, looking a little shaken up. "Paul's dead."

"What?!" Sam demanded, his eyes wide.

"Jane shot him." he said.

"It's starting." Cas said from the couch where he was still a little drunk.

"What's starting? Where the hell have you been?" Dean demanded in an accusing tone.

The angel turned to face him with a squinting look.

"On a bender." He snapped.

"Did he… did you say on a bender?" Dean asked, confused.

"Yeah. He's still pretty smashed." Sam nodded.

"It is not of import. We need to talk about what's happening here." Cas said, gesturing to the door and around the motel room.

"Well I'm all ears. What the hell is going on with Elena?" Dean demanded, gesturing to her.

"I do not know yet without knowing how she ended up like that. I can tell you that she is in no immediate danger so she is not the main focus here. Leah is not a real prophet." Castiel said.

"Well, what is she, exactly?" Dean asked, turning to wash the blood off of his hands in the sink.

"The whore."

"Wow. Cas, tell us what you really think." He said as he turned back around, drying his hands off with a towel.

"She rises when Lucifer walks the earth. And she shall come, bearing false prophecy. This creature has the power to take a human's form, read minds. Book of Revelation calls her the Whore of Babylon." Cas read out of the book that was laid out on the table.

"Well, that's catchy." Dean said, throwing the towel back on the counter and walking towards them to sit in a chair.

"The real Leah was probably killed months ago." Cas informed them.

"What about the demons attacking the town?" Dean questioned.

"They're under her control."

"And the Enochian exorcism?" Sam asked.

"Fake. It actually means, you, um, breed with the mouth of a goat." Cas said with a slight smile.

His smile fell when the brothers gave him blank looks.

"It's funnier in Enochian."

"So the demons smoking out… that's just a con? Why? What's the endgame?" Dean said.

"What you just saw… innocent blood spilled in God's name." Cas confirmed.

"You heard all that heaven talk. She manipulates people." Sam said, nodding.

"To slaughter and kill and sing preppy little hymns. Awesome." Dean sighed, leaning back in his chair.

"Her goal is to condemn as many souls to hell as possible. And it's… just beginning. She's well on her way to dragging this whole town into the pit." Cas said.

"Alright. So, then, how do we go Pimp of Babylon all over this bitch?" Dean asked.

* * *

"I only wanted to… did I make it worse? Did I make the angels angry?" Jane said, clutching at Leah's hands as she cried.

"Jane. The angels… they understand." Leah assured her, smiling at her as Rob held his wife in his arms.

Dylan was standing back there staring at his mom with wide eyes, shocked that she'd killed a man.

"They do?" Jane whimpered.

"What you did was for the greater good." Leah nodded.

"Yes. Yes." Jane agreed.

"We all liked Paul. But he was a sinner, and he would have taken us down with him. You saved us."

"Thank you." Jane said tearfully.

"How can that be okay? She killed him. That sin is so much greater…" Gideon said, walking further into the room from where he was standing at the door.

"It's not a sin to strike down evil." Leah reminded him.

"But how can the angels…" he began.

"You always taught me we have to have faith." She interrupted.

* * *

Dean looked up from where he was lying next to Elena to see Cas set a stake down on the table.

"The whore can be killed with that. It's a stake made from a cypress tree in Babylon." The angel said, gesturing to it.

Dean stood up and walked over, looking at the thing.

"Great. Let's ventilate her." he said, sitting down.

"It's not that easy." Cas said, walking to the sink to get himself a glass of water.

"Course not." Dean nodded, rolling his eyes.

"The whore can only be killed by a true Servant of Heaven." He informed them, turning around as he took a sip.

"Servant, like…" Dean trailed off.

"Not you. Or me. Sam, of course, is an abomination. We'll have to find someone else." Castiel informed them.

* * *

"The angels… I don't know why they've chosen us. But they have. And today… today, they told me the most important thing yet. Tonight, at midnight… I'm sorry. It's just that we knew this day would come, and it's here… the final judgement. Now, we need to do this right. We don't have much time. They angels said we're not ready. There are still a few elements that need to be taken care of. Sinners." Leah announced as she stood at the front of the chapel.

The crowd began murmuring and looking around at each other, panicked.

"Now, uh, now, everybody calm down. Just hold on." Gideon said, stepping forward with raised hands. "Leah, you're scaring these people."

"Now, I don't want us to panic, but we have to hurry." She said loudly, ignoring him.

"Stop it." he whispered.

"I've been given instructions, names." Leah

"Wait. Let's go." he dragged her away. "What are you doing? Stop it! You're going to get somebody killed."

"Let me go. Or the next sinner I name will be you." Leah said calmly and with a slight smile before she turned back to the waiting crowd.

* * *

Gideon was walking out of the church, his mind filled with unfortunate doubts and even a lack of faith in what was happening in his church. When he heard a whooshing noise behind him, he turned to see someone standing there.

"Pastor David Gideon." Castiel said, looking in his eyes.

"Yeah. Who are you?" Gideon replied.

"I'm an angel of the Lord." He said.

"Yeah, sure." The pastor scoffed, turning away.

The next thing he knew, the angel's hand clapped down on his shoulder and whisked him away to the motel room.

"What the hell was that?" he said, looking up at Sam and Dean.

"Yeah, he wasn't lying about the angel thing. Have a seat, Padre. We got to have a chat." Dean said, gesturing to the table before they launched into an explanation.

When they were done, Gideon simply stared at the stake for a moment before shaking his head.

"No. She's my daughter." He refused.

"I'm sorry, but she's not. She's the thing that killed your daughter." Dean corrected him.

"That's impossible." he said.

"But it's true. And deep down, you know it. Look, we get it… it's too much. But if you don't do this, she's going to kill a lot of people. And damn the rest to hell." Sam said desperately.

Dean picked up the stake and held it out to him.

"It's just… why does it have to be me?" he asked, looking up at Castiel.

"You're a Servant of Heaven." The angel answered.

"And you're an angel." Gideon said.

"Poor example of one." Cas sighed.

* * *

Dean was loading up the Impala as they waited on Gideon to make a decision. Cas was sitting on a bench outside of the room looking extremely distressed but a little bit more sober. He was rubbing his head painfully.

"Heads up." Dean said, tossing a bottle of Aspirin to him.

"How many should I take?" Cas asked, looking down at it.

"You? You should probably just down the whole bottle." Dean scoffed, not knowing how angel hangovers worked.

"Thanks." Cas nodded, looking up at him.

"Yeah, don't mention it. Yeah, I've been there. I'm a big expert on deadbeat dads. So… yeah, I get it. I know how you feel." Dean sighed.

"How do you manage it?" he questioned.

"On a good day, you get to kill a whore." Dean nodded before looking at him. "What do you think is wrong with Elena?"

The angel looked up at him and sighed.

"Whatever she did… whatever happened to her… she's been drained of all of the grace that Gabriel gave her. Her body has relied on that grace for so long now that… it is having a hard time recooperating without it. She will be all right at some point. But she won't be much use without getting the grace back." he explained.

Dean shook his head, trying not to scream out that he knew this was going to happen.

* * *

"Rob, Jane, please! Come on, it's me! It's Elise!" Elise pleaded as they dragged her into the room where Leah was making holy water.

"Sorry. Really. But you know we have to do this." Jane said.

"We're putting them in the storage unit." Leah informed them, stepping forward with a smile.

"No! No!" Elise cried.

They pulled her to the door and shoved her in the crowd that was trying to get out.

"Jane, is that everyone?" Leah asked once the door was closed.

"Yeah." Jane nodded, walking up with Rob by her side.

"Okay, then. Get the kerosene."

Jane and Rob both hesitated and Leah turned back to face them. Jane looked back at where Dylan was standing, watching them with fearful eyes.

"What?"

"There are kids in there." Jane said, sounding a little doubtful.

"The angels named them for a reason. Jane… your son needs you to do this." Leah said soothingly.

As Leah walked into the pastor's office, she closed a cabinet only for it to reveal Castiel standing behind it. He grabbed her and whirled her around, holding her still for Gideon.

"Daddy! Don't hurt me!" she cried

"Gideon, now!" Sam yelled as him and Dean ran forward.

Leah began chanting in Enochian and Cas collapsed backwards, yelling out in pain. Then she used a form of telekinesis to shove Gideon, Sam, and Dean away from her before she ran out. Gideon grabbed the stake and jumped up to follow her.

"Gideon! Wait! No!" Sam yelled, knowing that she would have him killed if the crowd saw him.

The brothers ran after him as Castiel was left in the office groaning in pain.

* * *

"Wakey wakey…" a voice said.

Elena's eyes flickered open and she started when she saw Gabriel's face hovering above hers.

"Gabriel… I'm so tired." she mumbled, falling backwards.

"Well that's because you used up all your grace when you shouldn't have, fruitcake." He said, pulling her up to a sitting position and letting her lean against his chest as he sat behind her.

She didn't react as his hand pressed to her own chest.

"What are you doing?" she groaned, her head lolling back onto his shoulder.

"Replenishing." He replied, white light flowing out of his hand and into her chest.

Elena gasped and her eyes flew open as her memories came rushing back to her.

* * *

"Help me! He's a demon!" Leah cried as she ran into the room.

Three men caught the pastor and began beating him to get him away from Leah. He lost the stake and it skidded across the room.

"Light the kerosene." Leah instructed Rob and Jane.

"Come on, come on!" Dean yelled, running into the room.

The cries from the people in the storage room were muffled. Sam tackled Rob before he could light the kerosene and he threw the lighter across the room before slamming Rob's head against the wall, knocking him out. Leah knocked Dean down with her telekinesis before climbing on top of him and wrapping her hands around his neck. He reached for the cypress stake which was just at his fingerprints.

"Please. Like you're a servant of Heaven." She scoffed, tightening her grip.

"Let me go!" Jane yelled as Sam held her back.

"This is why my team's gonna win. You're the great vessel? You're pathetic, self-hating, and faithless. It's the end of the world. And you're just gonna sit back and watch it happen." Leah taunted, grinning down at him.

Suddenly a person appeared behind Leah and ripped her off of Dean, holding her arms back.

"No!" Leah screamed as Elena held onto her with an unbreakable grip.

Dean jumped up, not hesitating before driving the stake into her heart.

"Don't be so sure, whore." He growled, twistng it.

Elena stared at him with wide eyes as she let Leah drop to the ground. Her body began to shake and the stake caught on fire. Then it exploded, leaving a burning hole where it entered her body. The people who were previously on Leah's side stopped struggling and stared at her body.

"But… I don't understand. How are we supposed to get to paradise now?" Jane asked.

"I'm sorry. Pretty sure you're headed in a different direction." Dean informed her as Sam helped Gideon up.

The others watched with surprise as another person appeared in the room. Gabriel was there just in time to catch Elena as she staggered to the side and a drop of blood slid out of her nose.

"What did I tell you, sugar pie? I said you weren't at full capacity yet. I said that you had to give your body a few more minutes to heal. I said…"

"Shut up, Gabriel. I was protecting my boys." Elena grumbled before falling unconscious for what seemed like the fifteenth time that day.

* * *

Dean was helping Castiel and Sam was helping Gideon up the stairs. Gabriel had already popped Elena back to the motel room.

"Dean, how did you do that?" Sam asked as they walked towards the Impala.

"What?" Dean replied.

"Kill her." Sam said.

"Long run of luck held out, I guess." He shrugged.

"Last I checked, she could only be ganked by a servant of Heaven."

"Well, what do you want me to tell you? I saw a shot. I went for it." Dean snapped, frustrated by his questions.

They put the injured Gideon and Castiel in the back of the car. Then Sam stopped Dean before they got in the front.

"Are you gonna do something stupid?" he demanded.

"Like what?" Dean replied, staring at him.

"Like Michael stupid." Sam snapped.

"Come on, Sam. Give me a break." Dean scoffed, rolling his eyes.

* * *

"How's the head?" Dean asked as Sam wrapped up Gideon's wrist wound and the pastor held a pack of ice to his head.

"I'm seeing double. But that may be the painkillers." He informed him.

"You'll be okay." Dean nodded, seeing that his eyes were clear.

"No." Gideon contradicted him with certainty.

Dean sighed and turned to see Gabriel sitting on the bed where Elena was sleeping. Then he turned to walk to door.

"Where you going?" Sam asked, not wanting to let Dean out of his sight after what just happened.

"I'm just gonna grab some clean bandages out of the trunk. Relax." Dean said, opening the door.

Sam nodded.

"There. How's that?" he asked Gideon as he finished wrapping the bandage.

He suddenly heard the sound of the engine revving up and he ran outside, seeing Dean already speeding away.

"Damn it! Dean! Dean!" he yelled, feeling panicked and angry at his brother.

When he turned to walk back into the room, he saw Elena sitting up and standing at the door.

"Don't you dare." Gabriel said as Sam stared at her.

Elena's eyes lifted to look at Sam. When she saw the fear in his eyes, she knew that she didn't have a choice.

"I'm fine, Gabriel. Heal the pastor and Cas." She sighed, standing up and disappearing in the next moment.

* * *

"Well… at least you didn't make it hard to find you." Dean whipped his head around to see Elena standing there.

"I thought you were all comatose." He said.

"I got over it… always do." She shrugged, walking forward and pulling herself to sit on the hood of the Impala where he was leaning.

He was parked in a field facing the road. Elena looked over at him.

"Well… what is it?" she said.

He turned to look at her.

"What is what?" Dean asked.

"Dean you killed someone you were never meant to be able to kill. There's something happening and I think I have the right to know." Elena said, looking down at her hands.

"Why don't you tell me what the hell happened to you first. Where are Ellen and Jo?" Dean demanded.

She looked up at him before sighing and opening her mouth to talk.

* * *

"_We have instructions not to kill you. We only want to bring you back to our father." One of the demons said._

_Jo and Ellen looked at Elena with wide eyes._

"_I'm assuming he means you." Ellen said._

"_Yeah, he does." Elena sighed._

_She walked forward slowly and stared them down._

"_You can tell Lucifer that he can kiss my ass. He knows he's not going to get me to come with you and he's certainly not going to get me on his side." Elena said._

"_He knows that now. He wants you so that he can kill you himself in front of Sam Winchester." Another demon said._

"_Oh so he has lost interest in me. How sad." Elena snapped sarcastically._

"_You will come with us." The demon said with certainty._

"_I'm not so sure." She replied._

_Her eyes were darting around for a possible way out of this. There were too many of them to simply fight their way out of this. Something flared up inside of her and she suddenly knew what to do. Her hands clenched up as she felt the grace rising up inside of her. She didn't have near as much in her as the normal angels would but she had enough. She could do this… right?_

"_Ellen… Jo… you have to close your eyes." she warned, feeling the warmth spreading through her hands._

_They began to light up slightly._

"_What are you doing?" Jo asked hesitantly, noticing her hands._

"_I'm serious, close your eyes." Elena warned._

_They both stood still, noticing the demons backing away from Elena slightly. She felt as though she was about to burst as the full power of the grace filled her up. This was what the angels always felt like. It was amazing and terrifying at the same time. Her mind was full of light and her entire body quivered with anticipation._

"_Close your eyes!" she screamed, finally getting them to drop to the ground and bury their faces in their hands._

_The next thing she knew, light was erupting from her hands, her mouth, her eyes… every part of her body was emanating it. She could hear the demons screaming as it hit them, pushing it across the field to kill every demon in Elena's radius. Then came the pain. She began to scream as well, throwing her head back and feeling her energy draining. It cut off as quickly as it came and she felt like she'd just ripped part of her insides out. She collapsed to her knees as the last of the light drained and felt blackness threatening to overtake her vision again. Ellen and Jo were at her sides instantly, pulling her up to a standing position. The demons around them were all lying on the ground dead with their eyes burned out._

"_Elena? Are you okay?" Jo asked._

_She pushed them towards the car._

"_Get in and drive away. Go to Bobby's. We'll meet you there when this is all done. I'm fine." Elena said._

_"We should come." Jo said._

"_There will be even more demons guarding the town. I am going to have to apparate in and I can't do it to all three of us. I am a little weakened. Go." she said._

_She waited until Ellen and Jo drove off, sure that they went in the direction of South Dakota, before she stumbled to her knees and felt the blood leaking out of her nose, mouth, and ears. After a few moments, she was able to stumble to her feet. She could feel the darkness surrounding her mind and knew that she had only moments. So she concentrated as hard as she could to get herself to Sam and Dean._

* * *

Dean stared at her for a moment.

"That's how you drained your grace. You used it all to save Ellen and Jo." He sighed.

"The demons were going to kill them and take me. I had no choice." Elena said, looking out at the road.

Then she turned her eyes on him.

"Now you. Tell me what's going on." Elena said.

Dean sighed and shook his head.

"Look, I have no illusions, okay? I know the life that I live, I know how that's gonna end for me. Whatever. I'm okay with that. But I wanted you to know… that when I do picture myself happy… it's with you. You know… with the apple pie life and the kids running around the freshly mowed lawn with their ridiculous toys." Dean said, staring into her eyes.

Elena stared at him.

"Dean, why are you saying this?" she demanded.

She could have sworn she saw a tear fall from his eye as he turned his head away.

"Dean, tell me why you're saying this!"

* * *

**Author's Note: Sorry for leaving it there, guys. But I have to get to bed. I'll update as soon as possible, I promise! Please review!**

**Katherine is in the next chapter and, a little preview… she actually has to say thank you to Elena for something. Gasp! There will also be an actual visit to Mystic Falls next chapter.**


	24. Chapter 24

**Disclaimer: I do not own TVD or Supernatural**

**Thanks to LineChokor, Dark Alana, Nyssandria, xxPaige23xx, RHatch89, diehardromantic, RachReadAlot, chiwi, SergeantPixie, JMHUW, imusic247, Dark-Supernatural-Angel, slayerdiaries, DrawingMyHeartOut, and the two guests for reviewing!**

**To LineChokor, I loved your story. Can't wait to read more.**

**To Dark-Supernatural-Angel, sorry about that mistake. I fixed it now but I was originally going to have Ellen and Jo stick around but that didn't work so I changed it but I just forgot to delete that part. Sorry about that.**

**A few things:**

**1. Holy crap my wonderful readers! We've gotten to 400 reviews on this part alone! Combined with Hells Bells, that's over 800 reviews! Do you realize how wonderful you are? I love each and every one of you! Scroll to the bottom Author's Note to see your reward!**

**2. Elena's outfits are on my profile.**

**3. Enjoy!**

* * *

Elena stared at him, pushing herself off of the Impala to back away. She was unable to understand why he was doing this.

"Why?" she demanded, voicing her thoughts.

Dean's eyes flashed to Elena and he looked regretful as he saw the pain in her eyes. But that didn't stop him from saying what he did next.

"I'm doing this for you." he said.

She cocked her head to the side.

"You don't get to put that on me. You do not get to do this stupid ass thing and use me as an excuse. Why would I possibly give you any reason to do this?" she demanded.

"I'm sorry but I don't believe that it's over. I don't believe that the angels aren't going to use you against me again. I have no hope that you are here for good. I won't let you… and your family… pay the price for me again." Dean said.

Elena didn't realize that her legs were carrying her forward she had her hands fisted in his jacket, her face level with his since he was leaning on the Impala.

"You don't get to make that decision for me! You don't get to dictate what I do or don't sacrifice myself for!" she yelled, shoving him backwards and backing away, shaking her head as angry tears filled her eyes.

He stared at her with devastated eyes as if he'd been expecting her reaction. Suddenly Elena winced and pressed her hand to her head.

"Elena?" he said, reaching out for her.

"Don't." she said, stumbling away.

"I'm sorry. I can't…" he said, regretting what he was about to do more than anything.

As pain shot through her head, another after effect of her getting into the action too soon after draining herself, he turned away and pulled his phone out. He waited until he was behind the wheel and hurtling down the road to dial Sam's number.

"Elena's hurt. She's at mile marker 259 on the highway." He said before hanging up.

Elena was on her knees when Cas, Dean and Gabriel arrived, helping her to her feet.

"That should be the last of it." Gabriel said.

"That's great, Gabriel." She snapped, looking at the road where Dean had disappeared.

"You can find him again." Sam assured her.

Her eyes were sorrowful as she turned on the younger brother.

"I'm so terrified that he's lost, Sam." she whimpered.

* * *

Dean was drinking straight out of a bottle of whiskey as he moved around the motel room that he'd rented out. He'd drawn angel-proofing marks, hoping that it might keep him from being found. It was highly unlikely since Elena wasn't a full angel but it might give him some time. He was placing everything of his in a box for the motel to ship to Bobby. From his leather jacket to his mother's ring to his gun. When he walked to the dresser to drink more, he heard a creak.

"You're going to kill yourself, right?." Sam guessed, causing Dean to turn.

He was standing there alone, a lock-picking kit in his hand.

"I'm not going to kill myself." Dean scoffed.

"No? So Michael's not about to make you his Muppet? What the hell, man? This is how it ends? You just… walk out?" Sam demanded.

"Yeah, I guess." He sighed.

"How could you do that?" Sam said, taken aback and emotional at Dean's admission.

"How could I? All you've ever done is run away." Dean shot back.

"And I was wrong. Every single time I did." Sam said desperately.

Dean stared at him unemotionally.

"Just… please Dean. Not now. Bobby is working on something." Sam sighed.

"Oh, really? What?" He said, looking at his little brother.

Sam didn't answer.

"You got nothing and you know it." he said accusingly.

"You know I have to stop you." Sam said, staring straight into Dean's eyes.

"Yeah, well, you can try. Just remember: You're not all hopped up on demon blood this time." Dean reminded him, readying himself for a fight.

"Yeah, I know. But I brought help." Sam said.

Dean turned to see Cas standing there, a spark of anger in his eyes. Elena was still nowhere to be seen. The angel reached out and pressed his fingers to Dean's head, causing him to fall unconscious.

Elena's gaze was set straight ahead as Sam and Cas carried Dean to the car, pushing him into the backseat next to her. She was feeling fine now, no side effects. She looked over at Dean's unconscious body as Sam and Cas walked to the front. Cas was staying with them just in case Dean awakened and tried to escape again. His head was lolling back onto the seat. He looked peaceful in his slumber and Elena felt her throat well up. Without Sam and Cas noticing as they hurtled down the highway towards Sioux Falls, she pulled him to let him lie down on the seat, his head in her lap. She stroked his hair carefully, wanting more than anything to pretend like all of this wasn't happening.

* * *

By the time they got to Sioux Falls, Dean was still asleep. Cas and Sam dragged him inside and laid him on the couch where he began stirring. Elena went upstairs to take a shower, wanting a few moments to herself. When she finally climbed under the hot water, she let herself break. Her legs crumpled underneath her and she buried her face in her hands, crying as the water beat down on her. She let herself have ten minutes before she got herself up and washed herself off. Then she climbed out and braided her hair over her shoulder before smacking some clothes on herself. She walked downstairs, realizing that Dean was awake when she approached the study.

"Yeah, no, this is good. Really. You know, eight months of turned pages and screwed pooches but tonight, tonight's when the magic happens." He snapped as she walked in, leaning against a table as he crossed his arm over his chest.

Bobby was behind the desk and Sam was seated in front of it as Cas leaned against the wall by the doorway in the kitchen. His eyes lifted and he looked sad as he took her in. Elena didn't say anything, leaning against the doorway with her arms across her chest and one of her legs crossed over the other.

"You ain't helpin'." Bobby snapped, staring up at him, disbelief in his own eyes that Dean was doing what he was doing.

"Yeah, well, why don't you let me get out of your hair, then?" Dean replied, looking away from Elena to stare at Bobby.

"What the hell happened to you?" the older hunter snapped.

"Reality happened. Nuclear's the only option we have left. Michael can ice the devil, save a boatload of people." He said, trying and failing to make them see that it was the right thing to do.

"But not all of them. We gotta think of something else." Bobby said stubbornly.

Dean scoffed, shaking his head.

"Yeah, well, that's easy for you to say. But if Lucifer burns this mother down, and I coulda done something about it, guess what? That's on me." he gestured to his own chest.

"You can't give up, son." Bobby sighed, sounding hurt and frustrated.

Dean looked down at his shoes.

"You're not my father." He said, making Elena's eyes widen and Sam's to look over at Dean with a devastated look at the hurt in Bobby's eyes. "And you ain't in my shoes."

Bobby stared at him for a moment before pulling a gun out and setting it on the desk. Then he pulled a bullet out of his shirt pocket and Elena immediately recognized it.

"What is that?" Dean asked, his eyes following Bobby's movements.

"That's the round that I mean to put through my skull."

He reached out and set the bullet on the desk beside the gun.

"Every morning, I look at it. I think, Maybe today's the day I flip the lights out. But I don't do it. I never do it. You know why?" Dean stared at him. "Because I promised you I wouldn't give up!" he yelled.

They all remained silent, Bobby's words weighing in their minds as they stared at Dean.

Suddenly Cas let out a pained noise and hunched over, clutching at his head. Elena was at his side within moments.

"Cas, you okay?" Sam asked, turning back to look at him.

"No." he said, looking up at Elena with a furrowed brow.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

"Something's happening." He replied, wincing as another stab of pain went through his head.

"Where?" Dean asked.

Cas didn't answer, instead just disappearing.

* * *

They were milling about, waiting on Cas to get back and hoping that he did, in fact, come back. Elena was watching Dean closely, making sure he didn't make a break for it. She was sitting at the kitchen table when he walked in from the study, obviously uncomfortable with no one saying a word to him.

"I'm gonna get a beer, do you mind?" he asked Sam, who was planted firmly in front of the fridge reading something.

Sam shifted out of the way and Dean opened the fridge. It slammed back shut before he could reach in. His eyes flashed over to Elena's with shock.

"I mind." She said, the first words she'd spoken to him.

"So you're gonna follow me around, keep me from drinking?" he asked, narrowing his eyes at her.

"Yep." She said in a petty tone, popping her lips on the 'p'.

Their staring match was interrupted by the sound of Cas arriving.

"Help!" they heard the angel yell.

"Boys!" Bobby called, making them all run in there.

They got there in time to see Cas laying a person on the couch. Elena, Dean, and Sam's eyes widened when they saw who's face was beneath the dirt.

"Who is it?" Bobby asked, looking up at their shocked faces.

"That's our brother." Sam said.

"Wait a minute. Your brother? Adam?" the older hunter confirmed.

"Cas, what the hell?" Dean demanded.

"Angels." Castiel sighed, setting two angel-killing blades on the desk.

"Angels? Why?" Sam questioned.

"I know one thing for sure. We need to hide him now." He said, approaching Adam.

He reached down and pressed a hand to his chest, a light coming out of it as he branded his ribs with Enochian symbols. Adam gasped, waking up. He sat up immediately, staring around at them.

"Where am I?" he demanded, his eyes bright and confused.

"It's okay. Just relax, you're safe." Sam said, holding his hands out as he spoke in a soft, calm voice.

"Who the hell are you?" Adam said, glaring at him.

"You're going to find this a little... a lot crazy, but we're actually your brothers." Dean informed him.

"It's the truth. John Winchester was our father, too. See, I'm Sam…"

"Yeah, and I'm sure that's Dean." Adam interrupted him. "I know who you are."

"How?" Sam said.

"They warned me about you." the young man answered, staring at them suspiciously as they were staring at him.

"Who did?" Dean demanded.

"The angels. Now where the hell is Zachariah?" Adam questioned, staring around at everyone.

Elena started forward, kneeling in front of him.

"We're not going to hurt you, Adam. So just relax." She said, reaching out and touching him.

In the next moment, he was cleaned off and in fresh clothes.

"How did you do that?" he asked, shocked.

"Angels." She said simply, backing away.

"So why don't you just tell us everything? Start from the beginning." Dean said, dragging a chair up and sitting on it backwards.

Elena stood against the wall next to Cas as Sam sat down and Bobby remained where he was.

"Well, I was dead and in Heaven. 'Cept it—it uh, kinda looked like my prom and I was making out with this girl, her name was Kristin McGee…"

"Yeah, that sounds like heaven. Did you get to third base?" Dean said with a smirk.

He caught sight of Sam's annoyed bitchface and quieted as Elena rolled her eyes.

"Just uh, just keep going." Sam suggested.

"Well, these… these angels, they popped out of nowhere, and they tell me that I… I'm chosen." Adam explained.

"For what?" Sam questioned.

"To save the world." He said, looking a little proud.

"How you gonna do that?" Dean scoffed.

"Oh, me and some archangel are going to kill the devil."

They all stopped and stared at him, unable to comprehend what they were hearing.

"What archangel?" Dean demanded.

"Michael. I'm his uh, sword or vessel or something, I don't know."

Elena's eyes flickered to Castiel, waiting for him to offer up an explanation.

"Well, that's insane." Dean said, shaking his head.

"Not necessarily." The angel offered, making them all look at him.

"How do you mean?" Elena questioned.

"Maybe they're moving on from you, Dean." Cas said, staring him down.

"Well that doesn't make sense." Dean shot back.

"He is John Winchester's bloodline, Sam's brother. It's not perfect, but it's possible." He shrugged, sounding less than pleased.

"Well you gotta be kidding me." Dean snapped, turning to face Adam again.

"Why would they do this?" Sam asked, looking up at Cas.

"Maybe they're desperate. Maybe they wrongly assumed Dean would be brave enough to withstand them." Cas said.

Elena looked down, the truth of Cas' words hitting everyone close to home.

"Alright, you know what? Blow me, Cas." Dean growled.

"He's right." Elena defended the angel, not liking that Dean was taking out his petty anger first on Bobby and now on Cas.

Dean's eyes flickered over to her and he looked pained.

"Look, no way. After everything that's happened? All that crap about destiny? Suddenly the angels have a Plan B? Does that smell right to anybody?" Sam asked, gesturing to Adam.

"You know this has been a really moving family reunion, but uh, I got a thing, so…" Adam moved to stand up and everyone reacted, stepping forward to stop him.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, no, no, no. Sit down. Just listen, okay? Please." Sam said pleadingly.

"It's unbelievable." Adam snapped, sitting down and looking exasperated with them.

"Now, Adam… the angels are lying to you. They're full of crap." Sam explained.

"Yeah, I don't think so." he said, shaking his head.

"Really. Why not?" Sam questioned.

"Um, 'cause they're angels." Adam said.

"Trust me, that means absolutely nothing to those who actually know what we're talking about." Elena said, rolling her eyes.

Adam glared at her. Her mood was too foul to have to deal with a brat who couldn't keep his head on straight and realize that they were trying to help him. It didn't help that Dean was still scowling around at them.

"They tell you they were gonna roast half the planet?" Sam asked.

"They said the fight might get pretty hairy, but it is the devil, right? So we got to stop him." Adam shrugged.

"Yeah, but there's another way." Sam said.

"Great. What is it?" Adam said as Dean scoffed, a sound he seemed to be making a lot that day.

"We're working on the power of love." he said sarcastically.

"How's that going?" Adam asked, just as sarcastic.

"Mmm. Not good." Dean shot back.

Elena pushed herself off of the wall and everyone turned to look at her.

"Where you going?" Bobby asked, watching as she turned to walk out.

"Out." she said simply, disappearing from the spot.

They all stared after her, Dean looking the most regretful.

"Look, Adam… you don't know me from a hole in the wall, I know. But I'm begging you. Please, just trust me. Give me some time." Sam pleaded, finally turning to the problem at hand.

"Give me one good reason." Adam shot back.

"Because we're blood." Sam said.

"You've got no right to say that to me."

"You're still John's boy." Bobby piped up.

"No, John Winchester was some guy who took me to a baseball game once a year. I don't have a dad. So we may be blood, but we are not family. My mom is my family. And if I do my job, I get to see her again. So no offense, but she's the one I give a rat's ass about, not you." he snapped, speaking a truth that was almost painful to hear for the three men that counted family above all else.

"Fair enough. But if you have one good memory of dad, just one, then you'll give us a little more time. Please." Sam pleaded.

* * *

Elena sighed as she walked back up the stairs towards the house. She hadn't been gone long, only about thirty minutes and she couldn't hear any yelling so that was a good sign. The door opened as soon as she got to it and she came face to face with Adam. Her eyes narrowed at his guilty face.

"Going somewhere?" Adam sighed and turned to look at Sam.

"Out for a... beer… and some real food."

"Great. We got beer." Sam said.

"And I brought food." Elena held up the bags in her hands.

"Have a seat." Sam gestured to the couch in the study as Adam backtracked.

"Great. You know, you pitched this whole dewy-eyed bromance thing, but the truth is, I'm on lockdown, aren't I?" Adam snapped angrily.

"Adam, you may not believe it, but dad was trying to protect you. Keeping you from all of this." Sam said, gesturing around as Elena unpacked the burgers.

She looked around and didn't see Dean but she didn't ask where he was. Someone would volunteer the information sooner or later and she had a feeling that he was probably being kept downstairs in the panic room.

"Yeah well, I guess the monster that ate me didn't get that memo." Adam said, taking the plate from Elena with burgers and fries on it as well as a beer.

"You remember that?" Sam asked, smiling gratefully up at Elena when she handed him his food.

"Oh yeah." Adam nodded.

"Still, trust me. The one thing worse than seeing dad once a year was seeing him all year." Sam sighed.

"Do you know how full of crap you are?" Adam demanded.

"What?" Sam said, taken aback.

"Really. You see, it was me and it was my mom. That's it. She worked the graveyard shift at the hospital. I cooked my own dinners. I put myself to bed. So you can say whatever you want about our dad, but the truth is, I would have taken anything."

Sam nodded his head a little, realizing how it looked from his point of view.

"All right?" Adam asked.

"Look, if we had known we had a brother…" Sam began.

"Well, you didn't, so…" Adam cut him off.

"They would have found you." Elena said, sitting on the couch next to him.

Adam scoffed and shook his head a little bit. Elena couldn't see how any wouldn't think this boy was a Winchester. He had the snarky attitude for it.

"Look, I can't change the past. I wish I could. But from here on out…"

"What? We gonna hop in the family truckster? Pop on down to Wally World?" Adam snapped sarcastically, sounding so much like Dean.

"Tell you one thing, with an attitude like that, you would have fit right in around here." Sam said with a dark chuckle.

His eyes met Elena.

"I have food for Dean." She said softly.

"I have to talk to him anyways." Sam said, standing up.

Cas was down there guarding the door when they got there. Elena had Dean's food on a plate with a bottle of water with it. He turned to open the door while Sam smirked at Elena's staunch refusal to give Dean any alcohol. When it opened, Elena was a little bit behind Sam and the door so she wasn't immediately visible. Cas was glaring at Dean with a squinting gaze.

"Well, Cas, not for nothing, but the last person who looked at me like that… I got laid." Dean pointed out as Sam walked in.

Elena stepped out and revealed herself, a similar glare on her face.

"Case and point." He said, pointing to Elena.

Her face twisted into a scowl as she stepped in and set his food on a plate.

"Uh, why don't you, uh, go keep an eye on Adam?" Sam asked Cas.

The angel glared at Dean before waving his hand and slamming the door shut.

"Is this really necessary?" Dean asked, gesturing around.

"Well, I mean, we got our hands full, Dean... a house full of flight risks." Sam shrugged.

"I'm not letting him do it." Dean said, walking to sit on the cot.

Elena turned to the door, not wanting to hear Dean assure them that he was going to say yes to Michael again. She pushed it open and saw that the room outside of it was empty. When she closed it, she could still hear their muffled conversation as she leaned against the wall.

"Who, Adam? No, I'm... I'm not, either." Sam said.

"No, you're not getting me." Dean said.

"Oh, no, no, I get you perfectly. But I'm not letting you do it, either." Sam informed him.

"That kid's not taking a bullet for me."

"Dean…"

"I'm serious. I mean, think about how many people we've gotten killed, Sam. Mom, Dad, Jess, Ash… Henricksen. Should I keep going?" Dean demanded.

"It's not like we pulled the trigger." Sam said.

"We might as well have. I'm tired, man. I'm tired of fighting who I'm supposed to be." Dean said, shaking his head.

"Well, do you think maybe you could take a half a second and stop trying to sacrifice yourself for a change? Maybe we could actually stick together?" Sam suggested.

"I don't think so." Dean said, shaking his head.

"Why not? Dean, seriously. Tell me. I… I want to know." Sam said.

"I just… I… I don't believe."

"In what?"

"In you." Elena turned to stare at the door, hardly believing the words that had come out of Dean's mouth.

She assumed, since they didn't talk about it, the Ruby/Lilith incident was in the past. But here Dean was, throwing it back in Sam's face. This was not the man she fell in love with.

"I mean, I don't. I don't know whether it's gonna be demon blood or some other demon chick or what, but… I do know they're gonna find a way to turn you." Dean said.

"So you're saying I'm not strong enough." Sam said.

Elena heard something and looked down to see a piece of paper fluttering to the floor.

"You're angry, you're self-righteous. Lucifer's gonna wear you to the prom, man. It's just a matter of time." Dean said as she bent down to pick it up.

"Don't say that to me. Not you... of all people." Sam said, emotion filling his voice.

"I don't want to. But it's the truth. And when Satan takes you over, there's got to be somebody there to fight him, and it ain't gonna be that kid. So, it's got to be me." Dean said.

Elena unfolded the paper slowly and immediately recognized what it was.

**Help**

**-B**

It was the same thing that Bonnie had done when she was kidnapped by Rose and Trevor. The note sent through witchcraft. Only this time it wasn't a reassurance that they were going to find her. It was a plea for help. Elena looked up just as Sam walked out of the room, locking the door.

"Sam… I'm sorry." She whispered.

"It's… it's not your fault. I just… I have no idea what to say or do to change his mind." Sam sighed, gesturing back to the door.

"I know. But that's not what I mean. I have to go to Mystic Falls." She said.

His eyes lifted to stare at her.

"What?" he said.

"I got this message." She said.

"We kinda need you here, Elena. You can't just go running off." Sam said desperately.

"I don't have a choice, Sam. They're my family too, in case you forgot. And when they ask for help…" she shoved the note into his hand. "… I go help them."

He looked down at his hands, reading the note and regretting jumping on her for wanting to go help her friends and family in Mystic Falls. When he got upstairs, she was loading her gun. Adam was watching with a wary look.

"Don't worry, I'm not shooting you." she said, shoving it into the back of her jeans and grabbing her dagger to shove it into her boot.

"Are you going after the angels?" he asked.

"None of your business." She snapped, not wanting to deal with his question.

"You know, you're treating me like I'm a little kid but I'm pretty sure that I'm older than you." Adam said, glaring at her petulantly.

"Yeah, you're right. You are older than me. Congratulations." She sighed.

Then she turned and looked at Sam.

"I'll be back as soon as I figure out what's going on." she assured him.

"Be careful. Do you need me or Cas to come with you?" he asked, gesturing to the angel who was hovering in the corner.

"No, you have enough to deal with here. If I need help, I'll call Gabriel." She said.

"I'll watch him, Elena. We won't let him do anything stupid." Sam assured her.

She leaned up and kissed his cheek as he leaned down a little bit her for her, smirking at their height difference.

"Oh shut up." She said, slapping his shoulder before looking over at Cas.

"I know he's pissing you off, but try not to kill him." she suggested.

"I'll take it under advisement." He said gruffly.

"Thank you." she nodded before concentrating and disappearing on the spot.

When she landed, she was standing in the park in Mystic Falls. The first thing she noticed were the sirens and flashing lights piercing the cool night air. She looked around to see a buildup of police cars around the Grill. Running forward, she saw that police and citizens alike were standing around a barricade.

"Sheriff Forbes?" she said, running up to the blonde woman.

"Elena?" she said, squinting at her when she turned around.

"What's going on?" she asked.

Liz looked tired and a little afraid.

"Well you picked a hell of a day to come back, Elena. There's a holdup in the Grill. We don't know what's going on because they won't answer the phones. Unless we resolve it in the next hour, there's going to be SWAT teams and FBI coming down here and I don't know why I'm telling you all this." Liz sighed.

"Sheriff is my brother in there? Matt? Caroline?" she demanded.

"All of them. Bonnie, Tyler, Alaric. Damon and Stefan are in there which makes me feel a little bit better because they won't let anyone get hurt." Liz sighed.

Elena looked up at the building.

"Do you know who's doing it and why?" She asked.

"I don't know. I saw a person looking through the window about thirty minutes ago. I didn't recognize them at all but I could have sworn…" Liz broke off, staring at her.

"Never mind." She said.

"What?" Elena said, urging her to finish.

"His eyes were black. I thought that… but I must just be tired. It's been a long day and then… this."

Elena stared up at the building, knowing now why she was sent the message from Bonnie. Humans weren't doing this. It was demons. And they were most likely trying to draw her in to give herself up to Lucifer. For all she knew, the devil himself was in there. She found herself slowly backing away.

"Elena, what are you…" Liz called but she was already running the other way.

When she was hidden behind a tree, she squeezed her eyes shut and focused on the bathroom of the Grill, appearing there a moment later. She heard muffled voices and she slowly crept towards the door, easing it open silently and stepping out into hallway that led to the restaurant. When she peeked around the corner, she saw a group of demons standing across from a group of her friends. There were other people in the restaurant too but they were huddled on the ground with Alaric standing guard in front of them.

"What the hell do you want?" she heard Damon's annoyed voice.

"We told you, call the Winchesters. Make them come here or we'll kill your precious little Elena." a familiar voice said.

It was Meg, the demon. Elena's eyebrows furrowed and she scooted forward a little leaning out. That was when she saw that two of the demons were holding up an exact copy of herself who had a piece of duct tape around her mouth and her hands tied behind her back with ropes. Her jaw dropped as she looked upon a very bloodied up Katherine standing in her place.

* * *

"How's he doing?" Bobby asked Sam as he sat in the chair, both of them quiet because Adam was sleeping.

Sam shrugged and scoffed quietly.

"How you doing?" he asked, looking at the tired and distraught looking younger Winchester.

Sam just nodded slightly, wishing that Elena were there.

Downstairs, Castiel was going down to check on Dean. When he reached the bottom of the stairs, he heard a crash and he walked up to the panic room door, opening the latch to the window and peeking in. He caught sight of a lamp and a chair that were both smashed on the floor.

"Dean?" he said.

There was no answer and he opened the door, walking in and looking around.

"Dean?" He called again, looking around.

"Cas."

He whirled around and saw that Dean had an angel-banishing sigil drawn on the inside of a cabinet. He slammed his hand to it, sending Castiel away screaming. He walked out slowly as he wondered if Bobby and Sam heard Cas. He didn't have any time to waste if they did. So he walked to the door that led straight to the outside, running off towards the Impala, knowing that he would have to hotwire it because they had the keys back at the house.

* * *

Elena had no idea what was going on but she slowly drew her gun out of her jeans. Why was Katherine there with the demons? Did her family and friends think that was her? How could the vampires not sense that it wasn't her? But then again, they had a bad habit of mistaking Katherine for Elena so it wasn't that surprising. The demons were obviously stronger than the vampire so that explained why they hadn't overtaken the demons. Katherine also seemed to be drugged or something so that explained why she wasn't fighting back much.

"We're not calling them. Elena would never want us to do that." Jeremy said.

"Elena isn't saying much." Meg laughed.

Elena did a quick count. There were five demons including Meg, who seemed to be the ringleader. Elena was grateful that Lucifer wasn't there. She really didn't want to have to deal with him as well. The gun wouldn't do anything against the demons but at least it would make them hesitate, hopefully. She looked towards her friends and saw Stefan staring straight at her. She raised a hand to her mouth before holding up the gun and nodding. He shifted backwards slightly, pulling the rest with him. Luckily, they all looked unharmed. She walked out slowly, pointing the gun at the demons.

"Hi, Meg." She said, causing them all to turn to face her.

The brunette demon's smile lit up when she saw her.

"Ah, you did join the party." She said, walking forward.

Elena just stared at her.

"You can put the gun down, Elena. You know it's not going to do any good." Meg said, gesturing to it.

She didn't make a single move to put it down.

"You ruined our ruse. We were going to kill this vampire bitch and make it look like we did it to you. Then hopefully all of these righteous suckers would believe that it was you and they would get angry with the Winchesters for getting you into their life, playing those boys right into our hands." Meg explained.

"I'm sorry to ruin it." Elena shot back.

"Elena…" Jeremy began.

Suddenly he was wrenched up and a demon was holding him, a gun to his head.

"You were saying…" Meg said, turning to look at him.

"Get away from him." Elena snapped, pointing the gun at the demon holding him.

It was strange to see the demon holding a gun to his head.

"It's because he wants to make it hard for you to resurrect him. A gun blown through brains is harder to heal than a broken neck." Meg explained.

"But not impossible, trust me." Elena said.

"Just drop the gun and your brother won't get hurt." Meg shrugged.

Elena's eyes flickered between her and the demon that was holding Jeremy, the gun following her eyes' movements.

"Elena it's a trap. It wasn't for the brothers, it was for you." Caroline said quickly.

Meg's lip curled and she turned to glare at the blonde.

"Thanks a lot, blondie." She said, walking up to her and snapping her neck easily.

Elena winced but she knew that it didn't kill Caroline. She would wake up just fine if not in a little pain.

"I figured that it was a trap for me. I know that you're not trying to get Sam to Lucifer. Not until Detroit, right? So you're trying to get me. So that he can kill me." Elena said.

"Kill you? No. Use you to bring Sam to Detroit? Yes." Meg nodded.

"But the other demons…" she began.

"Are grunts. They don't like to think that their father has a fascination with a stupid little half human. It ruins their whole perception of the guy and encourages rebellion. We can't have that, so we lie." Meg explained, rolling her eyes. "Now enough stalling, put the gun down or I have my grunt shoot your brother."

Elena looked at Jeremy, who shook his head.

"Don't do it." he got out before the demon shut him up by pressing the gun straight to his temple.

She looked back at Meg and saw the serious look in her eye. She would kill Jeremy if she had to. Elena dropped her shoulders, slowly squatting down to set the gun on the ground.

"Slide it to me." Meg said.

Elena's eyes flickered up to her.

"I have a better idea. Catch." She said, flicking the gun up and using her mind to make sure it slammed into Meg's face, causing her to stumble backwards.

Elena whipped the knife out of the boot and threw it as fast as she could, smirking when it made contact with the demon who was holding her brother. He flashed gold as the dagger buried itself in his heart. She didn't hesitate, running forward and whipping it out of his chest. Then she turned and slashed the approaching demon across the throat, causing him to collapse to the ground instantly. Everyone, including Meg, stared up at her with shock.

"You're good." The female demon marveled as Elena backed towards her brother.

"You okay, Jer?" she asked, the knife firmly held in her hand.

"Yeah." He said.

"That was nice and badass." Damon said, smirking at her.

"I try." She shrugged, appraising the situation in front of her.

"Do you want to know why we have your lookalike ancestor here?" Meg asked, gesturing to Katherine who was still being held by two demons.

"Because you were stupid enough to think that this would work?" Elena asked.

"No, silly Elena. She came to us. Well, to Lucifer." Meg said.

Elena squinted at her doppelganger, wondering if Meg was telling the truth.

"She was ranting about how she knew exactly how to get you to come straight to us. Just threaten your family. That's all we had to do. You would come running if we did just that. Of course what she didn't know is that we took her advice, she just so happened to be part of the plan." The demon explained with a smirk.

"None of us believed that was Elena. Why do you think that we were trying to stall you? We were waiting for her to show up. That's why I sent her a message." Bonnie said.

"Oh I know. But you didn't have to stall. I was stalling for you. I wanted you to send Elena a message. I wanted her to come. I wanted her to see this." Meg's eyes flashed to behind Elena and they all turned to see Jeremy standing at the bar, a knife in his hands.

"Jer!" Elena exclaimed, shocked.

"Not so much." he said with a smirk, his eyes turning black.

Elena's heart stopped for a moment. Jeremy was possessed by a demon. It was her fault.

"Say bye to brother dearest, Elena." Meg said with a grin.

The demon in her brother nodded before driving the knife into Jeremy's chest.

* * *

"Where's Cas?" Bobby demanded as Sam ran into the room.

"Blown to Oz." Sam replied. "Look, I'll get Dean. He couldn't have gone too far. Just watch Adam."

"How? You may have noticed, he's got a slight height advantage." Bobby reminded him.

"Then cuff him to your chair. I don't know. Just watch him." Sam said, turning to walk out.

* * *

Adam was sitting on a park bench, looking out at the empty playground.

"You're mom's not coming, you know." He jumped in surprise and turned to see a man in a business suit sitting there.

"This is the park where your mom took you on her day off, right? She's not coming. Not yet. But she will… soon." He said, looking over at Adam.

"You're Zachariah, right?" he asked with uncertainty.

"I am. You weren't where you were supposed to be, kid." Zachariah said.

"Yeah, I know." Adam nodded, looking down at his hands.

"Can't quite zero in on you, either. So, let me take a wild guess. You're with Sam and Dean?" the angel confirmed.

"Yeah." He nodded.

"Didn't we tell you about them?" Zachariah questioned.

Adam nodded again.

"So you know you can't trust them, right? You know Sam and Dean Winchester are psychotically, irrationally, erotically codependent on each other, right?"

"I don't know. They said a few things about you." Adam said, almost wanting to trust his brothers that he barely knew.

"Really? Trust me, kid, when the heat gets hot, they're not gonna give a flying crap about you. Hell, they'd rather save each other's sweet bacon or their lover girl that they have than save the planet. They're not your family. Understand? Now... you want to see your mom again or not?" Zachariah asked.

* * *

"Jeremy!" Elena cried, holding herself back from darting forward.

Meg laughed behind her at the despair in her voice. Elena didn't waste anytime once the laugh pulled her out of her stupor. She ran forward and slammed the knife into the demon's chest, able to forget that this was her brother.

"Elena no!" Bonnie yelled, sounding devastated.

She turned and glared at Meg, who looked surprised.

"I admit, I didn't know you had it in you. Let me guess, you want to kill Katherine now? For leading us to you and your dear brother? Have at it." Meg said as the demons shoved Katherine forward.

Elena stared at them, walking forward.

"No." she said.

"What?" Meg asked, confused.

"I'm not going to kill her." she said.

Meg laughed, shaking her head.

"You are so pathetic. You can't even kill the vampire I know that you are dying to be gone from your life. Absolutely pathetic. If you won't kill her, I will." Meg said, drawing out a wooden stake.

Elena didn't react to her threat, instead disappearing and reappearing behind one of the other demons. Both of them were dead within moments and then Elena appeared in front of Meg.

"I'm not going to kill you. You are going to go and tell every other demon that this town is off limits. And if they don't get the memo, I'm going to kill them all. You understand?" she asked.

Meg nodded, her eyes wide.

"Now go." Elena said, flicking her hand and causing her to fly backwards into the wall, falling onto the floor and coughing as the wind was knocked out of her.

Then she walked to Katherine, who was collapsed to her knees with the duct tape on her mouth. Elena ripped it off and Katherine grunted in pain.

"How do you like our similar looks now?" Elena asked, sawing through the ropes and freeing her.

"Why didn't you kill me? You had a chance to get rid of me for good." Katherine said, staring up at her with confusion.

Elena looked back down at her as she stood before looking over at Jeremy, who Bonnie was sobbing over.

"Too many people have died and will die. I don't want to add to that body count unnecessarily." She said, walking towards the group.

They parted as Elena bent over Jeremy. He sat up suddenly, gasping loudly, his hand flying out to show the large ring that was sitting on it. She sighed with relief that he was still protected in that way.

"Elena?" He said, staring up at her.

"Hey, Jer." She said, smiling softly.

She looked back to see that Meg was long gone and Katherine was still staring at her with shock. Suddenly something flashed in her mind and she winced.

"I hate to leave this party so soon but… I have to go." she said, standing up slowly.

"Where are you going?" Damon demanded.

"The apocalypse is happening, Damon. Mystic Falls isn't the only place that is going to hell. I have to go." she said, her heart heavy now that she had to go back to deal with Dean.

She could sense that he'd escaped from the panic room somehow. It didn't make it any better that she knew that demons had attacked her family and friends because of her. Just another thing to add to the list of bullshit that was going on in her life. But at the top of the list right now was the man she still loved no matter what.

"You're pretty badass now." Stefan commented as she bent over the dead demons, touching them to send them away so that the authorities wouldn't find them.

Elena shrugged and turned to face them, catching sight of the terrified onlookers.

"Make sure they don't remember me, okay? Can't have them announcing that Elena Gilbert is some kinda freak." She said with a slight smile.

Suddenly she was on the receiving end of an enormous group hug, including Caroline since she'd just woken up.

"I love you too, guys." She laughed, noticing that Katherine had disappeared as they all pulled away from her, smiling gratefully that she'd saved them.

* * *

"The end is nigh! The apocalypse is upon us! The angels talk to me, and they asked me to talk to you! The apocalypse…" the preacher yelled loudly on the corner of the street in downtown Sioux Falls.

Dean jogged across the street, standing in front of him.

"Hey! I'm Dean Winchester. Do you know who I am?" He questioned, ready for this.

"Dear God!" the man exclaimed.

"I'll take that as a yes. Listen, I need you to pray to your angel buddies and let them know that I'm here." He said, gesturing around the street.

Suddenly the preacher fell to his knees and began praying.

"Our father, who art in Heaven, hallowed be thy name…" he began saying loudly.

"You pray too loud." A deep voice said.

Dean looked up to see Cas standing there. He reached out and touched the preacher, causing him to fall to the ground unconscious. Then the angel reached out and seized his shirt, dragging him into a nearby alley. His fist connected with his face before he threw him against the wall.

"What, are you crazy?" Dean demanded.

Cas threw a few more punches, each connecting with a sickening crunch.

"I rebelled for this?! So that you could surrender to them?" he yelled, throwing Dean against the other wall.

"Cas! Please!" Dean said, blood running down his cheek and filling his mouth.

"I gave everything for you!" he yelled, a kick connecting with Dean's ribs before he hauled him up and threw him over into a fence. "And this is what you give to me!"

He stood over Dean, who was collapsed weakly on the ground, coughing up blood. His fist was clenched tightly as he considered beating the hunter up more.

"Do it. Just do it!" Dean urged him, barely able to hold his broken body up.

Suddenly a hand slid into Castiel's, causing it to unclench. Dean looked up through his hazy vision to see the beautiful face of his lover standing there, looking down on him. It was sad. He could almost see the tears filling her eyes. Cas looked over at her and sighed, his body relaxing at her presence. Then he bent down and touched Dean's shoulder, knocking him out.

* * *

"Bobby, what do you mean, Adam is gone?" Sam demanded, going crazy as everything was falling down around them.

"Should I say it in Spanish?" Bobby shot back, drinking out of a bottle of whiskey.

"He's gone how? What the hell, Bobby?!" Sam yelled.

"Watch your tone, boy. He was right in front of me, and he disappeared into thin air." The older hunter explained for the millionth time.

They heard the fluttering of wings and turned to see Cas and Elena, both holding up a bruised and battered Dean who was unconscious.

"Because the angels took him." Castiel said as they walked Dean to the couch and let him drop onto it.

"What the hell happened to him?" Sam demanded, looking at Dean's bruised face.

"Me." Cas said simply as they stepped back.

"What do you mean, the angels took Adam? You branded his ribs, didn't you?" Bobby demanded, looking at Cas.

"Yes. Adam must have tipped them." The angel informed them.

"How?" Elena asked.

"I don't know. Maybe in a dream." he said, looking at her.

"Well, where would they have taken him?" Sam asked.

* * *

Adam was digging into a burger in the fancy room when Zachariah appeared.

"I see you and your brother share the same refined palate." He said, sitting down.

"So, uh… we ready?" Adam asked, setting the burger on the plate and looking at the angel.

"For what?" Zachariah asked.

"What do you mean, for what? For Michael." He said as if it was obvious.

"Oh. Right. About that… look, this is never easy, but I'm afraid… we've had to terminate your position at this time." the angel explained.

"Excuse me?" Adam demanded.

"Hey, don't get me wrong. You've been a hell of a sport, really. Good stuff. But the thing is, you're not so much the chosen one as you are… a clammy scrap of bait." He shrugged as if it was an an easy mistake to make.

"No… but what about the stuff that you said? I'm supposed to fight the devil." He argued.

"Mmm, not so much. Hey, if it's any consolation, you happen to be the illegitimate half-brother of the guy we do care about. That's not bad, is it?" Zachariah asked.

"So you lied… about everything." Adam realized, all of the sudden wishing that he'd listened to the others when they warned him.

"We didn't lie. We just avoided certain truths to manipulate you." the angel said.

"Oh, you son of a bitch." He snapped, glaring at him with a familiar Winchester defiance in his eyes.

"Hey, how do you think I feel? I'm the one that's got to put up with that dumb, slack-jawed look on your face. Kid, we didn't have a choice. The Winchesters got one blind spot, and it's family. See, Sam and Dean, they're gonna put aside their differences and they're gonna come get you, and that is gonna put Dean right… here… right where I need him. This is the night, kid! Our night. Michael's seen it. The tumblers finally click into place, and it's all because of you. And me. But who's keeping score?" Zachariah shrugged.

"Yeah, I'm not gonna let you do this." Adam said, standing up.

"Cool your jets, corky. Sit down. We're doing it together. Plus, you still get your severance. You still get to see your mom, okay?" he assured him.

"Why should I believe you?" the young man demanded.

"You know what? I keep hearing this." Zachariah made his hand do a talking motion. "But what I want to be hearing is this."

He snapped his hand closed and Adam fell forward, spitting up blood.

"Yeah. That's better." He nodded.

* * *

Dean woke up handcuffed to the cot. Sam was sitting with him and they were alone in the room.

"How you feeling?" Sam asked.

"Word to the wise: don't piss off the nerd angels. So how's it going?" he mumbled as he sat up.

"Adam's gone. The angels have him." Sam said, not amused by his joke.

"Where?" Dean demanded, serious now.

"The room where they took you."

"You sure?" he asked, wanting him to be positive.

"Cas did a re-con." Sam nodded.

"And?" Dean asked.

"And the place is crawling with mooks… pretty much a no-shot-in-hell, hail-Mary kind of thing." Sam sighed.

"Ah, so the usual. What are you going to do?" Dean asked.

"For starters… I'm bringing you with." Sam said, standing up and leaning over Dean to unlock his handcuffs.

"Excuse me?" Dean said, pulling his hand away once they were off.

"There are too many of them. We can't do it alone. And uh, you're pretty much the only game in town." Sam explained.

"Isn't that a bad idea?" the older brother questioned, wondering if his brother was hit in the head.

"Cas and Bobby think so. Elena and I aren't so sure." Sam said.

Dean felt something stir inside of him, a feeling that made him want to kick himself. Even after all he'd done, all he said… they still had faith in him. How could they keep up that unwavering faith?

"Well, they're right. Because either it's a trap to get me there to make me say yes, or it's not a trap and I'm gonna say yes anyway. And I will. I'll do it. Fair warning." He said seriously.

"No, you won't. When push shoves, you'll make the right call." Sam said confidently.

"You know, if tables were turned… I'd let you rot in here. Hell, I have let you rot in here." Dean reminded him.

"Yeah, well… I guess I'm not that smart." Sam shrugged.

"I… I don't get it. Sam, why are you doing this?"

"Because… you're still my big brother." Sam sighed.

* * *

When they got upstairs, Elena and Cas were waiting for them. They both turned to face Dean with wary looks and he flashed back to the alley, seeing them standing there above them, disappointed and angry looks on both of their faces.

"How did Mystic Falls go?" Sam asked.

"I got to kill some demons. So great." Elena replied, making sure that her knife was safely in its sheath.

"What?" Dean said.

She turned to face him, a flash of anger and annoyance in her eyes.

"Nothing." She said, not wanting to explain that she'd had to go protect her family from demons because it was her fault that they were in danger in the first place.

"We ready?" Sam asked, facing Cas.

He put his hands out and they touched him, all disappearing and reappearing outside of an abandoned warehouse.

"Where the hell are we?" Dean asked, looking around.

"Van Nuys, California." Cas answered.

"Where's the beautiful room?" Elena questioned, looking over at him.

"In there." he said, pointing to the building as they walked towards a door.

"The beautiful room is in an abandoned muffler factory in Van Nuys, California?" Dean asked skeptically.

"Where'd you think it was?" the angel asked, turning to face them.

"I… I don't know. Jupiter? A blade of grass? Not Van Nuys." Dean shrugged as they all came to a stop in a small circle.

"Tell me again why you two don't just grab Adam and shazam the hell out of there." Sam asked, looking at Cas and Elena.

"Because there are at least five angels in there." Castiel informed them.

"So? You're fast." Dean shrugged.

"They're faster." Cas confirmed, taking off his tie.

He wrapped it around his palm as they watched with confusion.

"I'll clear them out. You two grab the boy. This is our only chance." He said.

Elena didn't like the sound of that.

"Whoa, wait. You're gonna take on five angels?" Dean asked, staring at him.

"Yes."

"Isn't that suicide?" the older Winchester brother questioned.

"Maybe it is. But then I won't have to watch you fail. I'm sorry, Dean. I don't have the same faith in you that Sam and Elena do." He said, pulling out a box cutter.

"What the hell are you gonna do with that?" Elena demanded, her eyes wide.

Cas turned his soulful eyes on her.

"I have to give you the best chance I can, Elena. This is the only way." he said as he began pulling his shirt open.

They all watched, wincing, as he carved an angel-banishing sigil onto his chest and stomach. Elena felt tears building in her eyes. There was no way that Cas got out of this alive, right? She felt like they were about to lose him. When he finished, he sliced his hand open and looked at them.

"I need to rebutton my shirt but…" he didn't have to say another word.

Elena was standing in front of him with her lip trembling slightly as she buttoned it back up.

"Please don't die, Cas." She whispered, looking up at him once she finished.

"I will try my best." He said but she knew that he was lying.

He knew exactly what was going to happen. He didn't give her a chance to do or say anything else as he turned to walk into the warehouse. About a minute and a half later, they saw a bright light through the door and heard the screams of the angels. They walked in to see one dead angel and the rest were banished away. There was an angel-killing blade on the ground next to Castiel's tie, which was rumpled and bloodstained. Elena turned and looked at Dean, who was looking between her and Sam.

Dean walked into the green room slowly, wanting to be completely silent. He immediately spotted Adam on the floor against the opposite wall and ran to him, kneeling down.

"Adam, hey. Hey." He said, making the kid wake up.

"You came for me." Adam choked out, blood on his chin and in his mouth.

"Yeah, well, you're family." Dean said, helping him up.

"Dean, it's a trap." He informed the older brother.

"I figured." Dean nodded, standing up.

They turned to face the door and found Zachariah standing right in front of them.

"Dean, please. Did you really think it would be that easy?" Zachariah scoffed.

"Did you?" Dean shot back.

Sam ran up behind Zachariah, brandishing an angel-killing sword. Zachariah turned and knocked it out of his hand before throwing him backwards against a wall.

"Sam!" Dean yelled, wondering where the hell Elena was.

"You know what I've learned from this experience, Dean? Patience." Zachariah said, waving his hand.

Adam suddenly fell to the floor, coughing up blood.

"Adam? Let him go, you son of a bitch." Dean snapped, looking up to glare at him.

"I mean, I thought I was downsized for sure. And for us, a firing... pretty damn literal. But I should have trusted the boss man. It's all playing out like he said... you, me, your hemorrhaging brothers." He said, gesturing behind him to where Sam began coughing up blood as well. "Although your pretty little guardian is nowhere to be seen. I see that she's abandoned you for greener pastures."

Dean started forward but stopped when he turned back around.

"You're finally ready, right?"

Dean looked from Zachariah to Sam to Adam, fighting a battle in his head.

"You know there's no other choice. There's never been a choice." Zachariah said.

"Stop it. Stop it right now!" He said, angry and devastated as tears filled his eyes at what he knew that he actually had to do this time.

"In exchange for what?" Zachariah said.

"Damn it, Zachariah. Stop it, please. I'll do it." he pleaded.

"I'm sorry. What was that?" Zachariah said, wanting to make sure that he heard right.

"Okay, yes. The answer is yes." Dean said, staring at the angel.

"Dean!" Sam choked out, sounding devastated.

"Do you hear me? Call Michael down, you bastard!" He yelled.

"How do I know you're not lying?" Zachariah squinted at him.

"Do I look like I'm lying?" Dean said, one tear falling from his eye.

Zachariah grinned before looking up, closing his eyes he began speaking in Enochian. He looked past Zachariah to see Elena sneaking into the room. She put a finger to her lips and something silver glinted in her hand. Then he looked over at Sam, who couldn't see Elena. He gave Dean a questioning look and the older brother smirked slightly and winked.

"Of course, I have a few conditions." He said, causing Zachariah to look at him.

"What?" he said.

"The few people whose safety you have to guarantee before I say yes." Dean said, stepping forward.

"Sure, fine. Make a list." The angel agreed almost too quickly.

"But most of all… Michael can't have me until he disintegrates you." the hunter said, nodding at the angel.

"What did you say?" Zachariah demanded, his smile fading.

"I said… before Michael gets one piece of this sweet ass… he has to turn you into a piece of charcoal." Dean said, sounding smug.

"You really think Michael's gonna go for that?" he scoffed.

"Who's more important to him now? You… or me?" Dean shrugged, his eyes fixed on Zachariah's face as Elena snuck up behind him.

Zachariah darted forward and wrapped a hand around Dean's neck, cutting off his air.

"You listen to me. You are nothing but a maggot inside a worm's ass. Do you know who I am…after I deliver you to Michael?" He snapped, anger filling his eyes.

"Expendable." Dean said hoarsely, fury in his gaze as he looked upon the jackass of an angel.

"Michael's not gonna kill me." Zachariah said.

"Maybe not. But I am." A voice said behind him.

He didn't have time to turn before the silver sword was stabbed through his chest. He gasped as white light flowed from the wound.

"I told you I would kill you, you son of a bitch." Elena hissed in his ear, twisting the sword as she felt an extreme satisfaction in finally doing this.

Dean and Elena caught each other's eyes over Zachariah's shoulder. Nothing that happened before mattered. Their fight and the fact that Dean almost gave up didn't matter one bit. They both grinned at each other before Dean stabbed the angel-killing sword that he was holding into Zachariah's head through his chin. Zachariah gasped and his body jerked as more white light filled the room. They ripped the swords out and tossed them aside as the room began shaking. An ear-piercing noise filled the room.

"We have to get out of here." Elena said, running forward to Adam as Dean ran to Sam.

"Okay, come on." she said, hoisting Adam up as Dean did the same to Sam.

"Come on, move it!" Dean yelled as he and Sam ran through the door.

It suddenly slammed shut, leaving Adam and Elena inside.

"No!" they heard Dean yell as they tried to open the door.

"No! Dean! Help! It won't open!" Adam yelled as Elena tried to use her abilities to open it.

A white light began filling the room and Elena turned to look at it.

"Dean, help! Dean!" Adam yelled, not giving up.

"Hold on! We'll get you out. Just hold on. Adam! Elena! Can you hear me?!" Dean was yelling, sounding terrified.

Adam turned to face the white light as well, his eyes wide. Suddenly the light faded and Elena turned slowly to see Adam staring back at her. His face was no longer terrified. The blood was nowhere to be seen. His eyes held such wisdom and his face was a perfectly cool mask.

"Until later, Elena." he said, snapping his fingers.

She realized that she was standing in an old office room seconds before the door wrenched open to reveal Dean and Sam. They ran in and looked around.

"Adam?" Dean said, turning back to her.

She shook her head slowly, walking out of the room numbly. She bent down and picked up Cas' tie, biting her lip as she held it in her hands and turned to face Dean.

"You think he's okay?" Sam asked, looking at Dean

"Doubt it. Cas either. But we'll get 'em." Dean said confidently.

Elena didn't say anything, just staring down at the blue tie in her hands.

"So." Sam said.

"So what?" Dean replied as Elena looked up at the younger brother.

"I saw your eyes. You were totally rockin' the yes back there. So, what changed your mind?" Sam asked.

Elena looked over at Dean, wondering what happened herself.

"Honestly? The damnedest thing. I mean, the world's ending. The walls are coming down on us, and I look over to you and all I can think about is, this stupid son of a bitch brought me here. I just didn't want to let you down." Dean sighed, staring at Sam.

Elena couldn't fight back a slight smile at that. It made her happy that Sam was the one to pull him out of it. It seemed like it finally made everything right. The Ruby thing. The demon blood. Lilith.

"You didn't. You almost did. But you didn't." Sam said, smiling.

Dean sighed, becoming serious.

"I owe you an apology." He said, looking at Sam.

"No, man. No, you don't." Sam said.

"Just... let me say this. I don't know if it's being a big brother or what, but to me, you've always been this snot-nosed kid that I've had to keep on the straight and narrow. I think we both know that that's not you anymore. I mean, hell, if you're grown-up enough to find faith in me… the least I can do is return the favor. So screw destiny, right in the face. I say we take the fight to them, and do it our way." Dean said to his little brother.

"Sounds good." Sam said.

Then he turned to Elena and she sighed, looking down at the tie.

"My family and friends were attacked in Mystic Falls by demons. It was my fault. I got them on the radar and… my brother would have died if it hadn't been for his special magic ring. I've been neglecting them. I should have taught them everything there is to know about protecting them from demons and such but I've been so focused on helping you two. It's not a bad thing but… I need to go take care of my family. So I'm going to go to Mystic Falls and I'm going to help them out." she informed them.

"For good?" Sam asked, his smile dropping.

She shook her head and bumped his arm with her shoulder.

"No, not for good, silly. For a few days." She said with a smile, shaking her head.

"We'll go with you." Dean said.

Elena looked up at him warily.

"Are you sure? You shouldn't be taking the fight to them?" She said with uncertainty.

"You are more important than any fight. Your family and friends are more important. Let's go help them and then we'll fight." Sam said.

She slowly but surely allowed a smile to grace her face.

"Thank you." she said.

Before she knew it, she was on the receiving end of a double Winchester hug. She laughed and, for a moment, was able to forget all the shit they were being forced to deal with. Sam backed away slowly, leaving Dean to hug her. She squeezed him back tightly.

"I'm so glad you made the right decision in the end." She sighed, burying her face in the crook of his neck.

"You had faith in me. I couldn't betray that. It took me a while but I finally realized it." he said, pulling away to look her in the eyes.

"I love you." Elena said, reaching up to stroke his face.

She healed the places where Cas had broken his skin as she did so.

"I love you too." He replied.

Elena smiled and leaned in, brushing her lips over his lightly.

"I love you too, Sam." she said, shoving Cas' tie in her pocket as they walked out of the warehouse.

"You too, 'Lena." He said, easily kissing the top of her head.

* * *

When they appeared in the house, they were happy to see that everyone was gathered there just as Elena had instructed them to do over text. Elena, Dean, and Sam were all carrying big duffle bags full of supplies.

"All right, demon proofing/hunting crash course 101." Elena said, diving right in as everyone stared at them with shock.

They began pulling out the salt, shotguns, spray paint, and the book that had the exorcism chant in it. They took turns explaining everything as the Mystic Falls group watched with wide eyes. They even demonstrated how to keep unwanted angels away just in case as they'd brought a jug of holy oil as well. After they'd drawn multiple devil's traps around the house, lined the windows with salt, and made sure that there was something with iron in every room, they all collapsed around the living room. Elena had disappeared and brought back a lot of junk food for them to munch on. The next day they were going to teach them how to pack salt rounds but for now, they were going to relax and have fun.

Elena and Dean were on the ground with her leaning back into his chest with his legs spread out on either side of her legs. Sam was sitting on the couch playing X-Box with Jeremy, Matt, and Tyler. Suddenly the doorbell rang and they all looked at each other questioningly.

"Stay back." Elena said as her and Dean jumped up, drawing their guns and making their way to the door hesitantly.

When she looked through the peephole, she sighed and pulled the door open.

"What do you want, Katherine?" she demanded.

The vampire looked up at her and for the first time ever, Elena saw a look of uncertainty on her face.

"Why didn't you kill me?" she asked, looking conflicted.

"I told you…" Elena began.

"I have done everything I can possibly do to make your life miserable, Elena. I don't understand." Katherine said, looking almost as though Elena had broken her mind.

"Because not everyone is a crazy bitch like you." Damon said and Elena turned to see that everyone had gathered in the entryway.

Katherine stared at them with hesitation before her eyes flickered back to Elena.

"I heard that Lucifer wanted you. I was going to give you up to him. I had no qualms about doing it." she said.

"I'm not like you, Katherine. I don't need to manipulate my way through life to get what I want." Elena sighed.

"But that's the thing, I wasn't going to get anything out of it. I just wanted you dead. Why couldn't you want the same for me, huh?" Katherine demanded.

Elena looked at her, really looked at her, and saw underneath Katherine's bitch exterior for the first time. She was just like any other young girl who was unable to realize that she could get what she wanted without lashing out. She looked back at the group around her slowly before sighing and handing Dean her gun. Then she stepped out onto the porch.

"How about you and I go get a drink?" she suggested.

Everyone stared at Elena as if she was crazy, including Katherine.

"What?" they all said at once.

"You and I haven't ever had a chance to really talk. I promise not to try to kill you if you promise the same. We just go get a drink and… talk. About whatever. Because I have a feeling that it's been a while since you've really had anyone to talk to." Elena said.

Katherine stared at her warily.

"What's the catch?" she asked.

"No catch. Just you and me. Alone." She said.

The vampire looked up at the rest of them before looking back at Elena.

"I know a really good bar a few towns over." She said.

"Great." Elena nodded.

"It has a dress code, though." She said, looking down at Elena's casual clothing.

"I can handle that." Elena said, holding out her hand.

Katherine stared at it before taking it hesitantly. Elena turned to smile and wave at the group inside the house.

"Keep having fun. We'll be back in an hour or so." she said.

* * *

Katherine was shocked to see Elena change her clothes so quickly, to say the least.

"What are you, some kind of telepathic freak?" she asked, admiring the nice outfit that Elena was wearing now.

"And there's the Katherine we all know and love. I was wondering where she went." Elena shot back as they turned to walk into the bar.

"Well at least you look decent." The vampire sighed.

When they got to the door, the bouncer looked them up and down with surprise.

"Twins?" he asked.

"No we just found each other on the street and decided to get a drink." Elena said dryly.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Katherine smirking.

"At least you got the Petrova fire, if nothing else." she said as they walked to the bar.

Elena sat with her, looking over at the vampire.

"Speaking of… what else did I inherit from the Petrova line? Because a little bird told me that I have the ability to subtly control men?" she said.

"Oh that's not news. I've known that for years." Katherine shrugged, waving the bartender down and ordering two vodka martini's for them.

"And I'm sure you've taken advantage of it." Elena said with a roll of her eyes.

"Of course I have. And the time will come when you find it handy as well." Katherine said as the bartender set the drinks in front of them.

Elena picked up her drink and turned to face Katherine, who was eyeing her as well.

"To the Petrova's." the vampire sighed, holding her drink out.

Elena was already taken aback at how easy it was to talk to the vampire once she stopped being so snarky and sarcastic.

"To the Petrova's…" she said, clinking her glass before sighing as well. "What a fucked up family."

Katherine let out a laugh, throwing her head back and everything.

"God… that is so true." She agreed before taking a drink as Elena smiled and took a sip of her own drink.

Katherine looked at her warily before nodding and biting her lip, a trait Elena immediately recognized in herself.

"This is going to be really… very… hard for me to say. I haven't said it in… years. But what the hell? Thank you… for not killing me." Katherine said, her eyes shifting downwards.

There was an awkward silence for a moment.

"Wow, that was really painful for you to say, wasn't it?" Elena joked, smirking.

Her lookalike looked up at her and rolled her eyes, realizing that the awkward moment was over.

"Yes. I need more alcohol." She groaned, drinking the rest of her drink in two gulps.

"For the record, you're welcome." Elena said before drinking the rest of hers as well.

* * *

**Author's Note: I know that last part was probably OOC but I had fun writing it. And I liked how I wrote future!Katherine so I wanted to hint at that relationship here. Sorry about the Mystic Falls parts with Meg. I realize that they were a bit disjointed. Please review!**

**READ THIS IT'S IMPORTANT! All right, I know that this is going to be sad and happy at the same time. But there are only four-five chapters left in this part of the story! It's gone by so fast! So I'm going to do the same thing I did at the end of Hells Bells. If you have any questions you would like me to answer, send them to me. I will answer anything honestly even if it has spoilers. Also, if you have anything you want to see in the next part throw that at me as well. I am open to your suggestions!**

**Lucifer comes back next chapter.**


	25. Chapter 25

**Disclaimer: I do not own TVD or Supernatural**

**Thanks to RHatch89, Dark-Supernatural-Angel, slayerdiaries, diehardromantic, Nyssandria, xxPaige23xx, chiwi, SergeantPixie, JMHUW, Dark Alana, Slytherin Cat, Hollywood17, and the guest for reviewing!**

**TO ALL OF MY POOR READERS… I'm so sorry! I know that I've been making a lot of mistakes in my writing lately but I have a great excuse, I think! I fell in the shower a few days ago and knocked myself out for a few (ten) minutes. I have a mild concussion but it makes reading and writing a little more difficult because my concentration is affected. That is why I have so many errors in my writing. So once again, I am so sorry. Let us all pray that I get over this fast so I can go back to having semi-good writing. **

**A few things:**

**1. I hope you guys don't mind, but I changed my mind. This isn't the chapter with Hammer of the Gods. I decided to make this chapter take place with them staying in Mystic Falls. It's a little bit different than that though. It has a lot of flashbacks because Dean, Elena, and Sam are telling everyone about one of their cases that I completely made up. It's a ridiculous chapter but I wanted to write it anyways. This is an entirely fluffy chapter and doesn't really add anything to the storyline so you don't have to read if you don't want to. It's not long either because, like I said above, my concentration is severely limited and I couldn't write too much. Sorry about that.**

**2. Hammer of the Gods will happen in the next chapter.**

**3. There is a very important question I have to ask you that is at the bottom of the chapter so please read that. It is very very important to me.**

**4. Elena's outfits are on my profile.**

**5. There are lemons in this chapter. Just a warning.**

* * *

"So you're really done with the Salvatore brthers then, huh?" Katherine asked.

"I'm not done with anyone, Katherine. We're still friends." Elena sighed, holding her sixth drink up to her lips and finishing it off.

"I suppose you didn't exactly have a hard time doing that when you had a pretty little hunter to run to." Katherine commented, drinking her drink as well.

Elena shook her head, turning to face her vampire counterpart.

"It's not even like that. I still love Damon and Stefan. But I think I knew that I wasn't going be with either of them as soon as I drove ot of Mystic Falls. It's like my vision cleared and… I finally realized that there is an entire world outside of a small town in Virginia. I didn't immediately fall for Dean. It was like a slow burn. I mean, I was always going to fall for him." Elena ranted.

"Hmm… why is that?" Katherine asked, a little buzzed just like Elena.

"We're soulmates. I haven't told him that yet. But I'm certain of it. Our souls are connected. There's a bond. It's really rare." Elena nodded, waving te bartender down for them both.

Katherine stopped her, shaking her head.

"We should get going." She said, looking at the bartender.

"Give us that bottle of whiskey and that bottle of scotch." She pointed to the two unopened bottles of alcohol behind the bar.

"I can't do that, sorry." He said regretfully.

Katherine's eyes narrowed as Elena watched them.

"Now." The vampire said, compelling him.

He immediately turned and grabbed them, handing them to her. Katheirne slid off of the stool and turned to walk out.

"She doesn't like being told no." Elena informed him before turning to follow Katherine.

They walked outside and Katherine handed her the bottle of whiskey before opening the bottle of scotch for herself.

"So… soulmates, huh?" she asked, looking over at her as they walked down the street.

"Mm-hm… and I'm a guardian. Half angel, half human. Did you know…" she began turning to Katherine but stumbled over the sidewalk, cutting off.

"Did I know?" Katherine reminded her that she was speaking.

"You existed only so that I could be born. The angels made it so. It was written… in prophecy." Elena nodded, tilting her head back to take a long drink.

"Really?" Katherine said, raising a perfect brow.

"Sort of, yeah. The angels almost destroyed our bloodline the moment that Esther casted the curse on Klaus but one of them wanted me to live. He is the one who made me half angel. He's kind of a jackass but kind of a loveable one, you know?" she said, turning to look at her.

"Kind of like Damon?" Katherine said in a slightly amused tone.

"Yeah. God I can't even imagine how bad it would be if Damon and Gabriel spent any extended period of time together. They'd be incorrigible. Thoguht I'm pretty sure Gabriel would piss Damon off. He has that effect on people." Elena sighed.

"Kind of like Damon." Katherine repeated, this time in a statement instead of a question.

Elena turned to look at her.

"Do you have some sort of plan, trying to get close to me only to kill everyone?" she asked bluntly.

The vampire looked over at her, almost surprised by the blunt question.

"I suppose I deserve that." she said, shrugging carelessly.

"Well you have made a mess of my life more than once." Elene agreed. "Though I don't really know why I asked you. You don't really have a good history of telling the truth."

Katherine simply took a drink, not denying Elena's statement.

"I don't have a plan. The devil… he was my plan. But you kind a shot that to hell." She informed her, grinning coyly as she took a drink.

"Yeah, I'm kind of a bitch like that." Eelna said sarcastically, laughing slightly.

Surprisingly enough, Katherine let out a short laugh as well.

"Please, no matter how bitchy you are, you'll never be bitchier than me." she reminded Elena.

"Well you're not gonna find me denying that. But neither of us will ever measure up to Rebekah Mikaelson." Elena smirked.

Elena let out another laugh, reaching out to touch Katherine's arm. They disappeared and reappeared on her street, walking towards her house. Katherine didn't even bat a lash, grinning at Elena's referral to the Original sister.

"Rebekah… the Original Bitch." She said.

"Accurate." Elena sighed but then she looked over at Katherine. "But then again, I used to think that there was nothing redeemable tabout you and here I am, actually having a little bit of fun with you. So maybe there's hope for her. After all, she has a few more chances to kill me in order to catch up to you." Elena said, pointing over at the vampire.

Katherine looked back at her, evaluating Elena just like she was doing the same to her.

"Who kne you weren't nearly as boring and annoying as I thought you were. Hell, you're even a little funny. I can proudly say that I think you got your bitchyness from my side of the family. The Gilberts are nearly interesting enough to give you that."

Elena shook her head, smiling.

"To the Petrova bitches!" she said proudly, holding up her ¾ of the way drunk bottle in the air as they approached the house.

"To the Petrova bitches… may we be bitchy forever." Katherine agreed, clinking their bottles together.

They stopped and smiled deviously before they held the bottles to their mouths and began chugging the rest, ignoring the burn in their throats. Elena began laughing and dropped her empty bottle on the grass as she stumbled up to the door. It ripped open to reveal Dean and Caroline with everyone else behidn them.

"Uh oh… I've been discovered." Elena announced, turning to see Katherine looking amused and a little less drunk than she was.

"I don't if they're gonna let me go out with you again. But at least you didn't kill me." she slurred, stumbling backwards.

Dean caught her and held her up.

"All right, let's get you to bed." He said, lifting her into his arms as she leaned on him.

"Bye bitch." Elena waved at Katherine before she yawned tiredly.

Everyone was focusing on Elena so they didn't see the small smile on Katherine's face before she disappeared. Dean carried Elena up the stairs as everyone began leaving to go get sleep of their own despite the fact that the day was starting. In the end, it was Dean, Elena, Sam, Jeremy, and Alaric left at the house. Dean laid Elena down and pulled off her jacket and shoes.

"Are you planning on kissing me anytime soon, Mr. Winchester?" Elena asked, looking up at him with sleepy eyes.

He smiled at her and leaned down, prssing his lips to her softly. Her eyes stared up at him innocently once he pulled away.

"Lay with me?" she asked pleadingly.

"Of course." He agreed, stripping off his jacket and shoes before climbing into the bed with her.

Elena sighed happily and curled into his side.

"She didn't kill me." she mumbled.

"Yeah, that doesn't mean it wasn't stupid to wander off with her." he replied.

Elena sighed and pushed herself up onto her elbow.

"I wouldn't be… Elena Gilbert… if I didn't at least try to give people a chance to be good. I mean, I gave Katherine like a thousand chances but… at least she didn't do anything bad tonight, right? Other than trying to give me up to Lucifer. Oh Lucifer! Now he… I don't know if he would take any of my chances to be good. He's pretty much the original evil. But…"

Dean put his finger over her lips.

"You are a little bit drunk. How about we go to sleep and we'll talk about rehabilitating evil people when we wake up." He suggested.

Elena thought about it.

"Sounds good." She agreed, laying her head on his chest again.

* * *

When they woke up around noon, Dean immediately knew that Elena would be in no mood to deal with reforming evil beings. When he shifted in the bed to look at the time, she groaned and her hand fisted in his shirt, keeping him in place.

"Lena? You awake?" he asked, looking down to where her face was buried in his chest.

"No." she grumbled, reaching down and throwing the covers over her head to keep out the sunlight.

He smirked when he thought that she must have had a hangover.

"Come on, we have to get up." He said, trying to tug the blankets off of her head.

"Says who?" she said.

"The apocalypse." Dean reminded her.

Elena's head lifted slightly out of the covers and he could see that she was pouting slightly.

"My head hurts." She whimpered.

"Can't you heal it?" he asked, reaching down to stroke her cheek.

"A hangover isn't an injury." She sighed, sitting up and pushing her hair out of her face.

Dean sat up as well and pulled her in, placing a kiss to her lips. Elena sighed and kissed him back.

"I can make you forget about it." he offered.

"Yes please." She said, threading her fingers through his hair.

He laid her down on the bed and hovered over her, reaching up the wrinkled dress that she was wearing. She watched him as he slowly pulled off the sheer black tights, his hands moving over her smooth legs. He pushed her dress up and over her head before his head went to her stomach, kissing all over it and sending chills through her body. Her head lay back against the pillow and she bit her lip as he kissed a path around her belly button.

"It's been too long." He said in a disappointed tone.

"It's been two days." She reminded him, smiling slightly.

"Too long." He reiterated.

Elena sighed when his hands traveled up her torso and he lifted her up to a sitting position, easily discarding her bra. She yanked off his shirt as well, impatient as he was.

"Much too long." He said as he pulled her to him and kissed her thoroughly.

"Oh God!" a voice yelled and they heard the sound of a hand clapping over the person's eyes.

"I did not want to see that!" Jeremy yelled even though he hadn't seen anything since Dean's body was blocking Elena's.

"Get out!" Elena yelled, throwing a pillow at him and glaring darkly as he slammed the door shut behind him.

"Now you see how I feel when annoying little brothers interrupt our time." Dean grumbled.

"Shut up and kiss me." Elena shot back.

He obliged her command and they laid back on the bed, Elena's legs wrapped loosely around his hips.

"Distracting you good enough?" he mumbled against her mouth.

"Not yet." She said, her hands traveling down and slowly pushing his t-shirt up.

He pulled away, allowing her to pull the shirt off and Elena tossed across the room before pulling him down to her. She could feel his response to their activities straining against his jeans and the feeling sent heat shooting straight to the apex of her thighs. She was forced to admit to herself that it had been too long. She pushed him off of her and sat up, causing him to give her a questioning look.

"Let's take a shower." She suggested.

He smiled at her as she dragged them into the bathroom. As soon as the hot water was turned on and they were stripped down to nothing, their desire overcame them and Dean almost immediately had her pushed up against the wall. The water cascaded down on them and their mouths came together roughly. Her legs wrapped around his waist as he lifted her to brace them against the tiles of the shower. As he slid into her slowly, both of them moaned into the others' mouths. Dean's pace started out slow, eliciting soft moans and sighs from Elena's lips. But soon his actions turned feverish and she encouraged it with hardly contained screams of pleasure.

His deep groans rivaled hers, causing both of them to blush at the thought that Elena's friends and family could possibly hear what they were doing. But after a while, neither of them cared, giving themselves over to the pure ecstacy of being with the person they loved. When they rode their high out together, their bodies spasming, Elena's hands loosened from their grip on his shoulders.

"Wow." Elena sighed as he let her down slowly.

"Agreed." He said, their bodies both weak and shaking from the experience.

They moved slowly around each other as they began to actually shower, smiling as they bumped into each other clumsily in the small shower. When they got out, they stood away from each other as they dried off. As Elena wrapped a towel around her chest and bent over to dry her hair, something occurred to her.

"Wait a fucking minute." She said, standing up and looking around confusedly.

"What?" Dean said, his eyes wide as he tried to figure out if he did something.

He wrapped his towel around his waist and walked to stand in front of her.

"I fell asleep." She said.

"Yeah… oh!" he realized.

"I'm not supposed to be able to sleep."

They stared at each other.

"Maybe the rules changed. But you did sleep a lot when we were dealing with the whore." Dean shrugged.

Elena sighed, shaking her head..

"We have no Cas to ask. And Gabriel isn't answering prayers or phone calls." She said, pulling her hair over her shoulder to run in through a towel.

Dean sighed and knew that reality had just knocked on their heads.

"Do you really think we'll find Cas?" she asked.

"I hope so." he said, looking down at her.

Elena bit her lip and walked to the counter, plugging in her blow dryer.

"Hey…" he walked to her and turned her around, putting his hands on her face.

"I believe that we will find Cas, know why?" Dean said.

"Why?" she sighed.

"Because that son of a bitch has died more than once and he's still kicking so I don't think that he's dead now. We'll find him, okay?" he said.

"Okay." She nodded, smiling as she leaned into his chest and wrapped her arms loosely around his waist.

A few minutes later, they were walking downstairs. Dean was wearing clothes that Elena had snapped into place for him but she'd actually pulled clothing out of her closet to throw on, marvelling that she hadn't worn any of it in a long time. She threw her hair into curly low pigtails afterward, looking much more young and fresh than she had in a while. Dean claimed that he liked it and that it reminded him of how she dressed when they first met. Elena simply told him that he liked the stuff she wore now because it included short dresses most of the time. He didn't disagree with that.

Everyone looked up as they entered the kitchen. There were supplies all over the place and it looked like Sam was instructing everyone that was there on how to make salt rounds.

"I thought that since you two didn't seem like you were going to come down any time soon, I might as well help them out." he said, gesturing to her friends.

"Thanks, Sam." Elena said, leaning up onto her tiptoes and kissing his cheek.

"So… what were you two doing?" Caroline asked with an amused sparkle in her eye.

They both shrugged and flushed slightly.

"You don't want to know." Jeremy said as if he was pained as he finished one of the salt rounds successfully.

"Oh shut it, kid." Dean said, reaching out to ruffle the younger man's hair.

Jeremy laughed and dodged his hand, throwing salt at him as if to keep him away. Elena watched on with a grin, remembering what Cupid said about Dean and Jeremy.

"That's for the demons, smartass." she said, leaning over her little brother and pulling his head back to kiss his forehead.

"And how do we know that your boyfriend isn't a demon for sure, huh?" he fired back, smirking.

"Because of these." Dean said and Elena realized that her family had never seen the devil's trap tattoos.

Sam and Dean showed them to everyone and they looked impressed.

"And Elena? How do we know you're not a demon?" Bonnie said jokingly.

Elena rolled her eyes and turned, pulling down her shirt to reveal the tattoo on her shoulder blade.

"Oh badass!" Caroline said.

She grinned at them over her shoulder.

"What can I say? They've had an influence on me." she said with a wink, slapping Dean's ass before walking into the kitchen.

Alaric was in there pouring a cup of coffee for himself.

"How are you doing?" she asked, pulling out a bottle of water for herself.

"I should be asking you that, with the hangover?" he asked, smirking at her.

"I'm living with it." she shrugged, sliding up onto the counter.

She looked around to see that the kitchen was pristine. There were no plates in the sink or food all over the place. This worried her more than it should have.

"When's the last time you and Jer had a real meal instead of take out or the Grill?" she asked, turning to face him.

He shrugged, looking around.

"Oh I am so making you food." She decided, leaping off of the counter and walking to the fridge to see what they had.

* * *

About an hour later, Elena was finishing up making a rather large meal for everyone. They were going in the living room since the table was covered in hunting stuff. She made a large pot of chili and had salad and cornbread for everyone. Caroline and Bonnie helped her make it as they all gossiped about stuff in Mystic Falls.

"Food is ready!" Elena yelled at the top of her lungs, grinning at the other females as the males almost immediately appeared in there ready to eat.

They all plopped around the living room with their bowls and began eating, all of them quite hungry since Elena banned them from eating until she finished cooking. There were many murmurs of how great Elena was for making the chili among the many conversations that were happening. Dean was sitting on an armchair and Elena was sitting across his lap as they ate. Jeremy was sitting on the ground leaning up against the side of their chair and he looked up at them.

"Tell me about one thing that you hunted together." He said and this caught everyone's attention as Dean and Elena exchanged a questioning glance.

"Um… well we hunted…" Elena said, looking at Dean for help.

"There was the haunted plantation about two months after you met us." Dean reminded her.

"Oh yeah, right after the Dracula case." She nodded.

"The plantation?" Caroline asked, leaning forward as she was interested.

Everyone stared at them as they waited for them to start.

"It was this plantation in Louisiana. There have been rumors about it forever. People going in there to stay the night on a dare or just being stupid and never coming out. Ghost sightings. Slaves and stuff. So obviously we went to go check it out." Dean said.

"It's like crack to an addict, throwing a haunted house at these two." Elena said, rolling her eyes as she pointed to Dean and Sam.

"Oh like you weren't just as interested as we were." Dean scoffed.

"Only cause it sounded like a really cool haunting!" Elena defended herself.

Sam smirked at them as they launched into the story.

* * *

"_What does one wear to a haunted house?" Elena asked, looking down at her wardrobe._

"_Something hot." Dean said from in the bathroom._

_Elena rolled her eyes and began pulling her clothes out. Sam was outside getting the weapons in the Impala ready for the hunt. She finally settled on her outfit and walked into the bathroom to see Dean fixing his hair at the counter._

"_I'm kicking you out." she announced, pushing him towards the doorway not-so-subtly._

"_Hey! I'm… what?" he argued, turning to face her._

"_I'm getting dressed. Unless you want to stay in here… don't say a word." She smushed her hand to his face and backed him up until he was out the door._

"_I'm willing to stay in there with you." he announced._

"_Go away." She said with a smirk, leaning forward to kiss him lightly before pulling away and closing the door._

* * *

"Okay we don't need to hear about your unbearable cuteness." Caroline said as she sat back in Tyler's arms.

"You're one to talk, blondie." Damon said, rolling his eyes at her and Tyler.

"Aw, you think I'm cute?" Tyler said, making the rest of them laugh.

"The plantation is one of the most haunted places in America, according to legend…" Sam began, jumping in.

* * *

"… _there have been up to twelve ghosts sighted there. The one that is seen the most is a young woman that was a slave there. Her name was Celia." Sam explained as they drove up to the house._

"_Wow, you've done your research." Elena commented, turning to look at Sam._

"_No, I've just always found this place interesting and I've wanted to see if the stories are all true or just tourist attractions." Sam said._

"_Nerd." Dean mumbled at Elena._

"_I heard that." Sam sighed._

_Elena let out a laugh and shook her head as they climbed out of the car. They all had a duffle bag full of supplies each just in case there were, in fact, that many ghosts haunting the house. They would need as much ammunition as they could get._

"_I think it's very cool that you know about this, Sam." she said, smiling up at the younger brother._

_She was walking in between them as they walked up to the house._

"_Thanks." Sam said triumphantly, smirking over her head at Dean, who scoffed and rolled his eyes._

_The old house loomed over them, looking ominous enough in itself._

"_Forget what I said about the Morton House, Sammy. This is our Grand Canyon." Dean said with awe as they walked up to the faded door._

"_Morton House?" Elena asked questioningly as they worked on opening the stuck door._

"_Norman Bates ghost." Dean grunted as they finally shoved it open._

"_Oh right, yeah. Ew." Elena nodded, remember them telling her that story._

* * *

"Norman Bates ghost? What does that mean?" Stefan asked, leaning forward as he was interested now.

"The house was full of ghosts that shouldn't have been there. The reason was that the guy who lived there and was the main haunting was a janitor from a hospital. He was also an expert in taxidermy. Brought bodies home from the morgue… to play." Dean said, a grimace on his face as he thought about it even now.

A chorus of ew's filled the room, mimicking Dean and Sam's first reaction to the revelation about the perverted ghost.

"Yeah." Sam agreed, shuddering.

* * *

_The house was cold and huge, that was their first reactions to it. After that, it was that everything was dusty and all of the leftover furniture was covered in sheets in true creepy form._

"_Any bets on how long it'll take for the first ghost to show up?" Elena said as they walked in warily, all holding a shotgun at the ready._

"_It's not cold enough outside for it to be this cold in here. So my guess? Pretty damn soon." Dean answered as they crept around carefully._

"_How exactly do we go about this? Identify ghosts and figure out where they're buried?" she asked._

"_We know where most of them will be buried. The family plot is out back. So we would probably do best salting and burning all of the bodies out there. The problem will be if there are any slaves that are haunting this place because there is no way of knowing where they're buried. With Celia, the young woman slave, she was supposedly hung by the other slaves when she poisoned the mother of the house and her two daughters, killing all three. Then her body was thrown into the Mississippi. So if she shows up, we have no chance of getting rid of her." Sam explained._

"_Great, so this is a shot in the dark kind of thing that we can end the haunting of this place." Elena nodded._

"_Yep." The brothers said at the same time._

_"Fantastic." She sighed._

* * *

"So wait, you just went into this place without really knowing whether or not you could even stop the ghosts?" Bonnie confirmed.

They all exchanged looks.

"Yep." They shrugged, all speaking at once.

"You could have gotten killed." Caroline said, her eyes wide.

Elena turned to look at the brothers.

"Yeah guys, how about you tell them about that?" she said, raising an eyebrow.

They looked a little sheepish as Dean opened his mouth to continue the story.

* * *

_They'd been walking around the house for thirty minutes and they'd seen nothing except for flickering lights and their breath appeared a few times. Elena was heading towards the stairs to walk back down with the boys trailing behind her. When she rounded the corner, she screamed and almost dropped her gun. They ran up and looked down the stairs with her to see the flickering form of a man crawling up the stairs. Blood was trailing behind him on the stairs and he looked to be struggling._

"_That's Robert Sommers. He is the only verified murder of the plantation. All the rest are myth but it is certain that he was shot on his front porch. It's said that he climbed up to the seventeenth step before dying. When he's seen, he does the exact same thing." Sam said, all of them backing up slightly as he continued to climb._

"_That's great, Sam." Dean said, raising his gun._

"_Wait, I want to see if he makes it to the step and what happens if he does." Elena said, stopping him._

_They all watched, counting as he yelled in pain and climbed higher. When he made it to the sixteenth step, they all held their breath. At the seventeenth step exactly, he stopped and collapsed, his eyes wide open and lifeless. Then his form flickered and disappeared. They sighed with relief and all relaxed, their hearts slowing down._

"_So he was a death echo." Dean nodded._

"_Seems like it." Sam agreed._

* * *

"If that were me, I might have fainted." Bonnie admitted, nodding.

"You're a witch." Jeremy reminded her.

"And if I saw a flickering bloody guy crawling up the stairs towards me, I would have freaked my shit out. Sorry to ruin your perception of witches, freak." She said with a grin, messing with his hair.

"It was pretty freaking scary." Elena agreed, nodding.

"And at this point, Elena had only been around us for a few months, so she was still getting used to stuff." Sam reminded them.

"Yeah, and I'm sure you can imagine how hard it was to get her to walk down the stairs after that ghost showed up." Dean sighed as Elena shrugged carelessly as if to say, 'what can you do?'.

* * *

"_I will stay right here until the sun rises. I'm okay with that." Elena said, holding her shotgun close to her person._

"_You can't just stand right here all night. I don't think the ghost is going to come back so quickly. Come on." Dean said, gesturing down the stairs._

"_And the good news is, if he comes back, he isn't moving fast. We will have plenty of time to shoot him." Sam said, walking down a few steps as if to prove to her that everything was all right._

_Dean did the same thing, both of them turning to face her with triumphant expressions. Their faces immediately fell. Elena froze up when she felt a freezing draft of air behind her._

"_Is there a ghost behind me?" she squeaked out._

_Both of them looked as though they wanted to deny it but couldn't. She turned slowly to see a young woman standing there, a dark blue turban on her head and blood running down the left side of her neck. She flickered once and her gaze turned dark as she glared at Elena._

"_Holy fuck!" She yelled at the top of her lungs, practically jumping down the stairs to run behind Sam and Dean, who both lifted their guns to shoot the ghost with rock salt._

* * *

"Holy fuck? Really? You couldn't have come up with a better expletive than that?" Damon said, raising his eyebrow.

"You try coming up with something when you're facing a creepy ass ghost!" Elena defended herself, leaning into Dean's chest as his arms wrapped around her comfortingly.

"Hey, at least we haven't gotten to the part of the story where Elena just kept repeating 'nope' and 'hell no' over and over again." Sam said, grinning up at her.

"Skip to that part and do it now." Caroline said, looking absolutely amused.

"In my defense, I was checking my hair in the mirror after one of these geniuses shot a salt round right by my head at a ghost. I thought I'd lost a chunk of it." Elena said defensively.

Dean and Sam laughed before Sam began talking again.

* * *

"_I swear to God, if my hair is ruined, I'll punch you both." Elena threatened, checking it in the large mirror in one of the bedrooms._

"_Sorry!" their voices chorused from the next room over._

"_You better be sorry." She muttered, running her fingers through the long locks._

_They'd been in there for an hour and a half and so far, they'd seen six different ghosts. Sam and Dean said this was officially a record for them in a haunted house. So Elena was pretty much ready to leave. Suddenly she felt a cold chill and she closed her eyes and shook her head, terrified at what she would see next. When she opened them, a face was next to hers in the mirror. Instead of screaming or cursing like she had been, she stared at the pale woman who simply seemed to be staring back at her. Elena slowly turned to see that no one was standing behind or beside her. When she turned back, two children were in the mirror as well, all of them looking at Elena._

"_Nope." She said, shaking her head slowly._

_They didn't make a move to look at her._

"_Nope, no… no… nope." She mumbled, backing away as she held the gun up._

"_Elena?" she heard Sam come in behind her and he immediately spotted the ghosts in the mirror. "Oh… wow." He said._

"_Hell no! Nope!" Elena exclaimed, throwing her hands up and turning to stomp out of the room._

_Sam laughed as he followed her, leaving the ghosts in the painting because he didn't want to destroy it in case it released the ghosts and they had to deal with more._

_"Where are you going?" Dean asked as she walked towards the stairs._

_Elena turned and pointed at the room._

"_Hell! No!" she yelled, tired of seeing ghosts all over the place._

_Of course that would be the moment that she turned and came face to face with another ghost._

"_What the fuck?" She screamed, hoisting her shotgun up and shooting it several times even after it disappeared._

_Sam and Dean followed her to the stairs looking amused at her ranting. The crawling ghost appeared again._

"_Nope!" she decided, shooting it before running downstairs and out of the house._

"_I'll go talk to her." Dean said, following her as Sam remained behind._

_He walked outside to see Elena pacing the porch._

"_You're all crazy people." She pointed out without looking at him._

"_Yeah, that's kind of the point." He said, walking up to her and taking her in his arms comfortingly._

"_It's not that I'm all that freaked out or anything. It's just… my life was crowded enough with vampires, witches, and werewolves. Now the world is getting even bigger around me and it's insane that most people don't even know that this kind of stuff exists. Before a few years ago, I didn't even know any of it existed. It's just all so…" she breathed, laying her head against his chest._

"_Crazy?" Dean asked._

_She nodded._

"_I feel useless. You and Sam are so good at this and I feel like I'm just here to be annoying and shrill." She admitted._

"_You're not useless or annoying or shrill." Dean said, lifting her head to look in her eyes. "Trust me. I know."_

_She smiled at him and their faces slowly drew closer._

* * *

"No more cuteness! We want a ghost story!" Caroline interrupted.

There were murmurs of agreement echoing around the room at her statement and Elena shrugged before looking down at Dean with a grin.

"I, personally, think that it's a great part of the story." She said.

He simply smiled up at her and brought her face down to kiss softly.

"Oh God, now we're witnessing the cute." Jeremy groaned, shaking his head.

"All right, you know what kid, I've had enough of your attitude. I'm going to go teach you how to clean a sawed-off now." Dean said.

"What about the story?" everyone said.

Dean sighed and sat back down, pulling Elena onto his lap.

"Well after finding out that there was no possible way to get rid of the ghosts, we burned the plantation down." He said.

"You what?" they all demanded, their eyes wide.

"People would have kept going there and getting hurt or even killed. We had to do something. We salted and burned all of the bodies in the cemetery but ghosts were still showing up." Sam explained.

"I told them that there would be a lynch mob waiting to string up whoever burned down the plantation. Turns out I wasn't too far off." Elena said, smirking.

* * *

_They were sitting at diner eating breakfast. They were all was exhausted after the night, barely having gotten three hours of sleep along with the boys but they had to get off to another case that Bobby gave them._

"_No offense, Dean. But your Grand Canyon kind of sucked." She mumbled, taking a gulp of coffee._

"_You're not kidding." He agreed, taking a bite of her bacon._

"_Hey!" she argued, furrowing her brow at him._

_Dean just smirked back._

"_Did you hear about what happened?" they heard a voice from a few tables over._

"_To the plantation? Of course I did. Can you believe it? Someone burned it down! The nerve! Such a historical place!" one of the older women said, shaking her head._

"_I heard that they got some evidence of who it was, tire tracks or something. They're going to find them and charge them right away." Another woman said._

_They all exchanged looks, looking hesitant._

"_They can't really find us by tire tracks, right?" Elena said._

"_Better clear out just in case." Dean said after a moment, all of them standing and he threw a few bills on the table before they turned to walk out._

_When they drove by the police station, a mob of angry people were standing outside of it demanding that whoever dared deface their history be caught and given the utmost punishment._

"_Southern towns, man." Dean sighed, shaking his head._

_Elena turned to glare at him, reminding him that she was from a southern town. He just grinned back._

* * *

Elena smiled as she watched Dean and Jeremy in the kitchen. Everyone else was working on making more salt rounds but Dean was working with Jeremy on cleaning one of Dean's old sawed-off shotguns that he was giving to Jeremy. Elena was working with Caroline and Bonnie on drawing devil's traps so that they could get it down perfectly.

"He's good with Jeremy." Caroline said, noticing the happy look on her face.

"He has experience." She said, her eyes flashing to Sam, who was working with Alaric on developing salt-tipped arrows for a crossbow.

"You look really happy." Bonnie said.

"They're like my family, you know that. It's just great to see everyone together and getting along." She said happily, smiling over at them.

"You really love them." Caroline said.

"Of course I do." Elena shrugged.

"I hope that you all make it out of this apocalypse okay, then. We can see how attached you are to them. It would be horrible if either of them…" Bonnie didn't say the rest.

"Yeah, me too." She nodded sadly, not wanting to think about what would happen if either brother didn't make it out of everything alive.

* * *

**Author's Note: I apologize once again for the length of this chapter! My head was killing me. So this is what you go, sorry.**

**A few things:**

**1. I based the haunted plantation on this chapter off of the Myrtles Plantation in Louisiana if you want to see that.**

**2. READ THIS PLEASE! All right so this is my question: in my dream world, I want to make this story have five parts. I have it all planned out to the end. The basic storyline, that is. But I am really uncertain as to whether anyone would actually want to read a five part story or if they'll get bored and move on. So that's what I want to know. Would any of you want to read this if it's five parts? I know it's a lot but I have so many ideas with what to do with it and I am really excited about writing it. So please tell me if you would keep reading even if it was long and drawn out. Thank you!**

**3. Review please!**

**4. I'm giving you one last chance to ask any questions you have. In the next chapter I'm going to answer questions and even give you a few hints as to what's going to happen in the next part of the story. Also, I'm not going to answer any questions about this part of the story. The end is coming up really soon so you won't have to wait long to find out your answers. So I'm only answering questions about the next part. I'll also have a poll about what to call it soon.**


	26. Chapter 26

**Disclaimer: I do not own TVD or Supernatural**

**Thanks to DrawingMyHeartOut, Aura1324, Slytherin Cat, Nyssandria, xxPaige23xx, slayerdiaries, RHatch89, diehardromantic, Dark-Supernatural-Angel, ItalianRoza113, 118, CherrySin, Boolochka06, thestralboggart, Dark Alana, SergeantPixie, IgnitingFireworks, chiwi, and the three guests for reviewing!**

**A few things:**

**1. You are all amazing! Thank you so much for giving me the confidence to go forward with my plan! I love you all!**

**2. Elena's outfits are on my profile.**

**3. Enjoy!**

* * *

"What the hell?" Elena said as the rain poured down on them.

"I don't know, it's like the damn…" Dean trailed off.

"Apocalypse?" Sam and Elena said at the same time, neither of them looking amused.

He shrugged.

"Look there's a hotel." He said, pointing it out.

He pulled into the lot, parking in front of the hotel at an angle. They looked up at the neon sign that read 'Elysian Fields'.

"I don't know… Dean." Elena said warily.

"What's wrong?" he asked, looking over at her.

"This place gives me the creeps." She admitted.

"We should keep driving." Sam agreed, getting the same feeling.

"Come on. This is the first place we've seen in miles. We need some rest." Dean said, shutting off the car and jumping out.

Sam and Elena exchanged a hesitant look before jumping out as well. They grabbed their bags out of the trunk and ran inside, already soaking wet by the time they went into the lobby. The boys were wearing their normal clothes and Elena was wearing a long-sleeved blue shirt with a black leather jacket, jeans, and black cowboy boots. The amulet was around her neck like always and laying right over her heart. She'd offered it back to Dean but he wasn't quite ready to take it as it signified the God that had abandoned them. Their eyes widened when they took it in. It was probably the nicest hotel any of them had ever seen. The furniture was all clean and modern and the walls were painted a dark red.

"Whew. Nice digs, for once." Dean commented as Sam and Elena regarded the extremely nice hotel with suspicion.

They followed the older brother as he walked up to the desk. As soon as he told the receptionist his name and handed him a credit card along with a request for one room with double beds, the man began typing away on the keyboard.

"Busy night." Dean commented after a few moment's silence.

"Any port in a storm, I guess." The front desk guy chuckled, his nametag announcing that he was Chad. "If you could just fill this out, please."

He handed Dean a credit card receipt.

"Yeah." Dean agreed, picking up the pen to write.

"Sir, I think... shaving nick there." Chad pointed to Dean's neck before handing him a tissue.

Elena's brow furrowed and she turned Dean's head to look at it. He hadn't shaved in days, as evidence by his scruffy look. Sure enough, there was a small cut on his neck.

"That's weird." She murmured.

"Your key." Chad said, interrupting her from inquiring about it.

"Oh. Thanks. Hey, you wouldn't happen to have a coffee shop, would you?" Dean asked, taking the key from him.

"Buffet. All you can eat. Best pie in the tri-state area." Chad said, pointing over to a crowded dining room.

"You don't say?" Dean said, looking happy enough as Elena had a sinking feeling that they were in trouble here.

Elena frowned as they followed him into the restaurant. She and Sam sat down, not touching the food as they tried to figure out what was so strange about this place. Dean immediately headed for the pies, looking down at them with wide, happy eyes. He finally came back with four different slices.

"Hey you two, unpucker! Eat something." He said happily, digging in.

"We should hit the road, Dean." Sam said, sounding frustrated and wary.

"In this storm? I… it's…" Dean trailed off.

"It's biblical. Exactly. It's friggin' Noah's ark out there, and we're eating pie." Sam said, raising an eyebrow at him as he shoved another bite in his mouth.

"How many hours of sleep did you get this week? What? Three? Four? Man we've barely slowed down since we left Mystic Falls a few days ago. Bobby's got his feelers out, okay? We have talked with every hoodoo man and root woman in 12 states." Dean said, sounding tired and Elena truly felt sorry for that.

"Yeah, well, I'm not giving up." Sam said, shaking his head.

"Nobody's giving up. Especially me. We're gonna find a way to beat the devil, okay? Soon. I can feel it. And we will find Cas, we'll find Adam. But you are no good to us burnt out." he said convincingly.

Elena glanced around, looking at every single person in the room to see if there was something different about them.

"Yeah. Yeah, okay." Sam sighed and she snapped her head to him, thinking that he would have remained on the side that was against staying in the creepy motel.

"Come on, we've actually got the night off for once. Let's try to enjoy it." Dean said, taking her hand as he noticed her stress.

* * *

As they walked down the hallway towards their room, Dean spotted a couple making out feverishly in front of their room. Dean nudged them both and pointed with a grin.

"Oh, what are you, twelve?" Sam said, rolling his eyes as he unlocked the door.

"I'm young at heart." Dean shrugged unapologetically.

Dean whistled when Sam opened the door, admiring the fancy room. Elena walked in and dropped her bag on the ground before walking to the window to see if it was still raining as hard as it had been.

"Wow. Look at this. We're like Rockefellers." Dean said, noticing chocolates on their pillows.

"Chocolates! You want yours?" Dean asked Sam.

"Knock yourself out." Sam sighed, plopping down in a chair.

"Isn't this place... in the middle of nowhere?" Elena asked, looking at the space of nothing all around the hotel.

Sam got what she meant immediately but Dean was too busy chowing down on chocolate.

"So?" Dean shrugged.

"So what's a four-star hotel doing on a no-star highway?" Sam said, nodding at Elena.

Neither of them answered her, the question weighing on their minds as it didn't make any sense to them either.

"I'm going to go downstairs and get the wi-fi password." Sam said when he realized that the Internet was password protected and they didn't have the code.

Elena looked over at Dean, who was lounging on his bed, and decided that she had to do it now. She'd wanted to do it while they were alone so that they could have a little bit of privacy. Then they could tell Sam.

"I think I know why I was able to turn myself visible." She said, stepping up to the bed and crawling onto it to sit in front of him.

He looked up at her, licking the chocolate off of his lips.

"Where did this come from?" he asked.

"Well… I've had a theory since it happened but… I've been trying to figure out how to phrase it. Plus, we've been kind of busy ever since." She said as an excuse, looking uncertain. "I wasn't keeping it from you on purpose, I just had no idea how to approach."

He stared at her warily, sitting up.

"What is it?" he asked.

"I talked to Cupid again… after the thing with Famine happened. He told me something about us…" she trailed off, thinking about how to say this.

His face suddenly turned furious.

"Did that son of a bitch put that Enochian symbol on our hearts? Did they make us come together?" he demanded.

"No, Dean no. I was afraid of that too but he assured that the angels had nothing to do with us coming together. He actually said that, if they had it their way, you would have never fallen for me and vice versa." She explained.

Dean stared at her, not understanding what she was trying to say.

"I'm confused. What could he tell you?" he questioned.

"We're… sort of… soulmates." She said, twisting her hands together as she stared at him warily.

He stared back.

"That's it?" he said.

Elena's brow furrowed.

"No, that's not 'it'. Dean it's a big deal. Our… bond… or whatever… it's more powerful than the angels' magic. Cupid told me that it had the ability to do very powerful things, for instance…" she trailed off.

"Turning you visible?" he said, leaning forward.

She nodded slowly.

"So we're… bonded? And that's why you were able to override Zachariah's… power?" he asked.

Elena shrugged and sighed.

"I think that's basically what he said. Apparently the angels have no control over it, like I said. It's 'written on the stones of the Fates' and irreversible. We were always going to come together whether I was your guardian or not. I think that it's why we trusted each other so intensly when we first met." She explained.

Dean regarded her with a furrowed brow.

"So it's nothing magical… or anything? It's just… fate?" he asked.

Elena nodded, waiting for his reaction. A slow smile spreaded across his face and she felt her entire body relax out of relief.

"I didn't need a naked angel to tell me that we were supposed to be together, Elena." he said, reaching out to stroke her cheek.

"I know and neither did I. But I thought that it maybe explained some things that were previously unexplained. Honestly, I was afraid that you'd be angry because I know you don't like the idea of destiny and…" she was cut off by his lips on hers.

"When it comes to you, I don't give a shit if the angels take credit. I love you and that's all I give a damn about." He said, staring deep into her eyes once he pulled away slightly.

Elena smiled back, looking amused.

"What?" he said.

"For someone who pretends to be such a badass, you can be awfully romantic." She informed him.

"Yeah well… I've had experience." Elena gasped and shoved him away, laughing as she couldn't believe he said that.

"I'm kidding!" he announced, pulling her with him to collapse on his chest as they lay on the bed.

"Dean?" she said as he stroked her hair.

"Hmm?" he murmured contentedly.

"I love you too." She sighed, burrowing into his warm body.

* * *

When Sam came back, he walked in on them snuggling close and watching a random action movie on the television. He opened his mouth to say something but before he could, the sound of a woman moaning pleasurably came from the other side of the wall with the TV on it. They all exchanged looks as they could hear the bed thumping and laughing. Elena grimaced as Dean nodded with a stupid grin and Sam just looked traumatized. Suddenly a loud thud sounded accompanied by the flat screen TV almost being knocked off the wall. That was not a normal sound even for the activities the couple was taking part in. They crept over to the room when they didn't hear anything more. After knocking on it a few times, Sam bent down to pick the lock. They walked inside to see that it was completely empty. Elena watched as Dean bent down and picked up a large engagement ring off of the floor.

"Hello?" Sam called.

There was no answer and they all exchanged wary looks, their suspicion of the hotel back in full force.

"The, uh, the room next to ours… the couple that are, uh, joined at the lips… have you seen them?" Dean asked as they stood at the reception desk in the lobby.

"Mr. and Mrs. Logan? The honeymooners? They checked out. Is something the matter?" Chad questioned, looking at them innocently.

Too innocently in Elena's opinion.

"They checked out?" Sam said, surprised.

"Mm-hm. Just now." Chad confirmed.

"Really? It sort of seemed like they were, uh..." Sam chuckled, shaking his head as even he couldn't keep his immaturity at bay. "... in the middle of something."

Elena shook her head, rolling her eyes at the brothers.

"Yeah, it's kind of weird for honeymooners to, uh, check out without this." Dean said, holding up the engagement ring he found.

"Oh, dear. I'll just put that right in the lost and found. Don't you worry. Is there anything else I can help you with?" Chad asked, taking the ring and putting it in a drawer.

"Uh, no. No, we're good." Dean said, regarding the man suspiciously.

"Super fantastic." Chad said happily as they turned to walk away.

"Creepy." Sam muttered, looking back at the man once before they turned to walk off.

"All right, well, we'll scope out the joint, and you keep an eye on Norman Bates over here." Dean sighed as his hand slid into Elena's and they turned to walk off.

"I mean, one night off. Is that too much to ask?" he mumbled.

Elena rubbed his arm soothingly.

* * *

For Sam, watching the overly cheery receptionist was boring. Finally, the man got up and began walking off. He followed at a safe distance but once he turned the corner near the vending machines, Chad was nowhere to be seen. He winced when he felt a pinch in his neck and touched it before he brought his hand up to see blood on his fingertips.

* * *

Dean and Elena were making their way up the different floors of the hotel. When they got to the last floor, they exited the elevator with Dean holding an EMF detector and Elena her dagger just in case. They passed an open door and both of them saw something out of the corner of their eye that didn't seem to register with them until they passed the door. They both stopped, wide-eyed, and backed up to see a rather large man walking to the door and wrapping a towel around his waist. He gave them a disgusted look.

"This ain't no peep show, man!" he said accusingly.

"I could have sworn…" Elena began.

"Did you see…?" Dean said at the same time, turning to face her.

* * *

They were walking to the lobby to see what was happening there as Dean and Elena explained what they saw.

"An elephant?" Sam said doubtfully.

"Yeah." They answered at the same time.

"Like, an elephant?" he confirmed.

"Like, full-on Babar." Dean nodded.

"So what the hell is..." he trailed off as they walked into the lobby.

It was completely empty.

"Where is everybody?" Sam said, looking around with confusion.

Elena walked to the lobby doors, attempting to open them. They didn't budge. She pulled back and held her hand out, attempting to open them telekinetically. Nothing happened still.

"Let me guess… it's locked. So what… the roaches check in, they don't check out?" Dean wondered, glancing around.

"Think about how we got here. That detour on I-90? The friggin' hurricane?" Sam reminded them.

"You saying we were led here?" Elena questioned, turning to look at them.

"Like rats in a maze." Sam nodded.

* * *

After searching all of the rest of the rooms on the ground floor, they ended up in the kitchen. It was abandoned, just like the rest of the rooms. But they walked further into it just to make sure. When they heard a strange noise, they all looked at the stove to see a bowlful of red bubbling liquid.

"Please be tomato soup. Please be tomato soup." Dean murmured as he lifted the ladle.

In the spoon sat two eyeballs and Dean dropped it as they all turned away, dry heaving a little. He turned to face them with a disgusted look.

"Motel hell." He labelled the place, sounding like he might actually throw up all that pie he ate earlier in the evening.

Sam looked around and caught sight of the freezer, walking towards it slowly. He leaned down and peeked in the window as Elena and Dean walked towards it as well. Suddenly a man's face appeared at the window as well as several pairs of hands.

"Help us! Get us out!" the man yelled, causing them all to jump in surprise.

Sam didn't waste much more time before reaching in his pocket and pulling out his lock-picking kit. He began fumbling with the door as the guests inside the freezer screamed for help. Elena and Dean stood behind watching.

"Hurry up!" Dean said hurredly, trying to make things go faster.

"I'm going as fast as I..." Sam whirled around to glare at Dean but instead his eyes got wide and he trailed off. "… as I can."

They both froze, instantly feeling another presence in the room.

"There's somebody behind us, isn't there?" Dean sighed.

* * *

Elena struggled with the men who were dragging them in as best she could but it was no use. They were stronger than her and that's when she realized that they were probably in way over their heads.

"It'd be nice to have some angelic assistance just about now." She muttered as they forced them into the Grand Ballroom of the hotel.

They looked around, noticing the people that were standing there were posing as guests. Their nametags read off many different yet familiar names. Odin, Kali, Baldur, Ganesh, Mercury.

"Something tells me this isn't a Shriner convention." Dean said, noticing the nametags as well.

"Dinner is served." Mercury said with a smile as two men rolled in a cart.

They removed the silver lid to reveal a man's severed head among a variation of entrails and organs. Elena, Dean, and Sam stared at it with disgusted looks. Suddenly a spotlight fell on them and they looked around for the source.

"What the…" Elena began.

"Ladies and Gentleman, our guests of honor have arrived." Baldur said, looking at them with a smile.

Elena turned to exchange wary looks with Dean and Sam, not liking the sound of that at all. They were suddenly dragged to three chairs and sat in front of the table while everyone else sat around it.

"Ladies and gentleman, thank you for coming. Although in all my centuries, I never thought I'd see this. This many gods under one roof." Baldur said, nodding at them all.

"Gods?" Sam said.

"Not good." Elena murmured.

"Now, before we get down to brass tacks, some ground rules. No slaughtering each other. Curb your wrath. Oh, and uh, keep your hands off the local virgins. We're, trying to keep a low profile here."

"Oh, we are so... so screwed." Sam whispered.

"Now we all know why we're here. The Judeo-Christian apocalypse looms over us. I know we've all had our little disagreements in the past. The time has come to put those aside and look toward the future. Because if we don't, we won't have one. Now we do have two very valuable bargaining chips. Michael, and Lucifer's vessels." He pointed at Sam and Dean.

"I'm not sure who the girl is, but I'm certain she is important as well. The question is, what do we do now? Anybody have any bright ideas? Speak up. This is a safe room." Baldur said, sitting down and leaving anyone else to speak up.

One of the gods, Zao Shen, stood and began ranting in a foreign language.

"Oh I don't like his tone." Dean muttered.

"Kill 'em? What, so the angels can bring them back again?" Ganesh scoffed, looking over at them.

"I don't know what everybody's getting so worked up about! 'Cause it's just a couple of angels having a slap fight! There's no Armageddon. Everybody knows, when the world comes to an end, the Great Serpent Jormungandr rises up, and I myself will be eaten by a big wolf!" Odin said, relaxed and smirking, slurring like a drunk.

Zao Shen sighed and said something that sounded like a curse in his language.

"Oh yeah? And why is that? Because your beliefs are so much more realistic? The whole world's getting carried around on the back of a giant turtle? Ha! Give me a break!" Odin said, shaking his head.

Zao Shen fired back with something they did not understand, getting angry.

"What are you gonna do about it?" Odin demanded, standing up.

They watched their back and forth with wide eyes.

"You watch your mouth when you talk to me, boy!" Odin yelled after Zao Shen said something particularly passionate.

Elena, sitting between the two boys, sneakily grabbed their sleeves and they stood slowly as everyone focused on the two arguing gods. As they turned to walk to the door slowly, a chandelier fell in front of them, stopping them in their tracks.

"Stay." They turned to see Kali standing and staring at them.

Instead of sitting back down, they remained standing and stared at her, Elena's hands still clutched in their jackets.

"We have to fight. The archangels… the only thing they understand is violence. This ends in blood. There is no other way, it's them, or us." Kali said, looking around at them with a seductive aura.

"With all due respect, ma'am, we haven't even tried talking to them." Mercury said, looking around nervously.

Suddenly he began to choke, blood spitting out of his mouth. They all watched with surprise as Kali glared at him.

"Kali!" Baldur said in a warning tone, stopping her from killing her fellow god outright.

"Who asked you?" she said, narrowing her eyes at him.

Suddenly they heard the doors open and turned back around slowly.

"Can't we all just get along!" the newcomer asked, looking dramatic and snarky as always.

"Ga…" Dean attempted to say his name but was cut off by the archangel, who narrowed his eyes at them.

Elena was relieved to see him but she suddenly realized that he'd taken Sam and Dean's voices and not Elena's. Wisely, she kept her mouth shut as he walked up to them.

"Sam! Dean... it's always wrong place, worst time with you muttonheads, huh?" he said with a raised eyebrow.

Then his eyes fall on her.

"And my lovely Elena." he took her hand and bowed, kissing it softly.

She watched him confusedly before realizing that he wasn't Gabriel at that moment.

"Loki." She greeted, remembering the name he went by.

He winked at her and moved past them to look at the gods.

"Loki." Baldur said, standing and staring at him.

Dean and Sam looked at her confusedly.

"Baldur. Good seeing you too. I guess my invitation got lost in the mail." Gabriel said, smirking at them.

"Why are you here?" Baldur asked.

"To talk about the elephant in the room."

Ganesh, the god that Elena and Dean could have sworn was an elephant earlier, began to stand, indignant.

"Not you." Gabriel cut him off, causing him to sit down again. The Apocalypse. We can't stop it, gang. But first things first."

He turned to look at Sam and Dean.

"The adults need to have a little conversation. Check you later." He snapped his fingers and they disappeared.

Elena fought back a sigh of relief that they were out of danger for now.

"And you… sugar cookie." He said, walking behind her as if he was inspecting her.

"What are you thinking, wearing that. You know you're in the presence of gods." He said, snapping his fingers once again.

She looked down to see that she was in a flowing white halter dress that came to her knees and tall white heels. Her hair was tumbling down her back in loose curls instead of pulled out of her face in a messy bun.

"Do you know her, Loki?" Baldur asked, staring between them.

"Of course I do. I'm surprised you couldn't tell. She's one of mine." He said, smiling at her with an almost proud look.

"One of yours?" Kali said, raising an eyebrow.

"I had her undercover with the Winchesters. You would not believe how many times she's led them into my trap without them knowing. The things I've done to those boys." He said with a roll of his eyes.

"I see it now. She is exquisite without that… disgusting… clothing." Baldur said, his eyes evaluating her.

She opened her mouth to protest that she liked her clothes just fine but Gabriel's hand on her back stopped her, causing her to snap it shut.

"Why did you not reveal yourself to us before?" Kali asked.

Elena tilted her head to the side slightly, summoning up her best acting abilities.

"I was playing a part that I wasn't supposed to break. And would you have even believed me if I had told you?" she asked simply.

"No, I suppose we would not have believed you." The other woman agreed.

Elena simply nodded at her.

"Please, Elena. Sit." Gabriel said, sitting her down.

She looked over at him with an arched brow.

"I should go be with the Winchesters before they begin to suspect something." She said, her meaning clear in her eyes.

She didn't trust anyone around here to leave them alone for any extended period of time.

"In a few minutes." He said, narrowing his eyes at her.

She read his meaning. These gods were already suspicious enough. She sighed and sat down, crossing her legs as she listened to Gabriel list the reasons why these gods should not go after Lucifer. Unsurprisingly, none of them were listening.

* * *

Dean and Sam looked around as they appeared in their room, looking at each other with wide eyes.

"Okay. Did that… holy crap!" Dean said, staring at Sam.

"Yeah, tell me about it. By the way, next time Elena and I say let's keep driving, uh, let's keep driving." Sam said, looking around for what to do next.

"Okay… yeah. Next time." Dean said sarcastically.

"All right, so what's our next move?" Sam asked.

"I-I-I… I don't know. Grab those poor saps outta the freezer, I guess? Bust 'em out? Gank a few freaks along the way if we're lucky?" Dean suggested.

"And when are you ever lucky?"

They both turned to see Gabriel and Elena casually reclining on the couch. Elena shook her head at them, telling them not to say a word about her state of dress.

"Well you know what, bite me, Gabriel." Dean snapped.

"Maybe later, big boy." The archangel said with a wink.

Elena rolled her eyes at them.

"I should've known. I mean this had your stink all over it from the jump." Dean said, gesturing around.

Elena sighed heavily at the distrust Dean held towards Gabriel despite the fact that he'd helped them more than once.

"You think I'm behind this? Please. I'm the Costner to your Houston. I'm here to save your ass." Gabriel informed them.

"You wanna pull us outta the fire?" Dean asked.

"Bingo! Those guys are either gonna dust you, or use you as bait. Either way, you're uber boned." He said.

"Wow, cause a couple of months ago you were telling us that we need to play our roles. I don't really think you've changed your mind so in that case, you're uber boning us!" Dean shot back.

"Ohh... the end is still nigh. Michael and Lucifer are gonna dance the lambada, but not tonight. Not here." Gabriel said.

Elena squinted at the archangel. He'd been helping her, yes. But he was adamant that he still thought that the apocalypse should and would happen with Dean and Sam in the starring roles despite the many arguments she had with him. It was hard to reverse millenia of thinking one way.

"And why do you care?" Dean asked.

Gabriel's eyes flashed to Elena before going back to Dean.

"I don't care. But, me and Kali we, uh, had a thing. Chick was all hands. What can I say? I'm sentimental." He shrugged.

Elena could tell that he was lying. Was he really there to save the Winchesters because of her?

"Do they have a chance? Against Satan?" Sam asked.

"Really, Sam?" Dean scoffed, not liking where this was going.

"You got a better idea, Dean?" Sam shot back.

"It's a bad idea. Lucifer's gonna turn them into finger paint. So let's get going while the going's good, hmm?" Gabriel said, gesturing to the door.

"Okay. Great, why don't you just zap us outta here then?" Dean suggested to Elena and Gabriel.

"Would if I could, but Kali's got you by the short and curlies. It's a blood spell. You boys are on a leash." Gabriel informed them.

"What does that mean?" Elena asked, cocking her head to the side.

"It means it's time for a bit of the old black magic."

He pulled a small bottle out of his pocket and sprayed his mouth with breath freshener.

"Okay, yeah. Well, whatever. Well, we're gonna take the hors d'oeuvres in the freezer with us." Dean said adamantly much to Sam and Elena's agreement.

"Forget it. It's gonna be hard enough sneaking you mooks outta here." Gabriel said, shaking his head as he stood up.

"They called you Loki, right? Which means they don't really know who you are?" Dean asked, narrowing his eyes at the archangel.

"Told you. I'm in witness protection." He said simply.

"Okay, well then how about you do what we say, or we tell the, uh, legion of doom about your secret identity." Dean shrugged.

"Dean!" Elena said, turning to furrow her brow at him.

He didn't reply, staring at Gabriel.

"They don't seem like a real pro-angel kinda crowd." He said.

"I'll take your voices away." Gabriel threatened, no longer joking.

"We'll write it down." Dean said.

"I'll cut off your hands."

"Well then, people are gonna be asking… why are you guys running around with no hands?" Dean shot back.

"No one is cutting off anyone's hands!" Elena snapped, getting between the boys. "Now either whip them out now and I'll measure myself or let's just get the hell out of here… with the people in the freezer."

Gabriel and Dean glared at each other before backing away.

"Fine." Gabriel said, rolling his eyes.

* * *

"Bonjour, mon amour." Gabriel said as the lights flickered off and the candles lit in Kali's room.

She turned, half naked, and stared at him.

"Leave." She said, sounding unamused.

"You always did play hard to get." He informed her, setting the rose he was holding on the table.

"I've moved on." Kali said, turning back to the mirror.

"I noticed. Baldur? Really?" Gabriel said, grimacing at her bad choice in gods.

"Baldur's uncomplicated." She replied.

* * *

Elena tried to look as casual as she could as she walked back into the ballroom. Baldur and a few other gods were still milling around in there as the council was currently breaking for rest.

"I can hardly believe that you are one of Loki's." he said, walking up to her as she poured a glass of wine.

"Well believe it buttercup." She said dryly, handing him the glass before pouring another.

"But with that dry humor, I'm more inclined to believe you." he said.

She turned to him and jumped up on the table, crossing her legs over one another.

"Are you really going to bring Lucifer here?" she asked, swirling the wine in her glass as she stared at him.

"That is our plan. Why? Are you scared?" Baldur asked.

"You should be scared. I believe Loki. He's dangerous. He could kill you all." She said in warning before taking a sip of the bitter liquid.

"You don't really believe that, do you?" Baldur asked, reaching out and letting his hand settle on her knee.

Her eyes flashed down to it and she suddenly didn't like this 'distract Baldur' plan at all.

* * *

Sam and Dean ran across the lobby, heading for the kitchen to break out the guests. They were stopped when they heard screaming and Sam dragged Dean into a hiding place where they could still hear what was going on.

"No! N-No! No! Please! Gah!" the man yelled as they threw him across the reception counter.

Dean started forward to help him but, with four gods there, Sam knew the odds weren't in his favor. He stopped him with an arm across his chest.

"It's too late." he whispered.

The man's screaming continued until one of the men who was holding him down buried a cleaver into his neck.

* * *

"I never took you for the type." Kali said as they gazed at each other in the dark-lit room.

"Romantic?" Gabriel asked, smirking.

"Pathetic." She replied easily.

"You're the one who called me here." He shrugged.

"Because I thought you might take this seriously." Kali said, sounding as though she regretted ever thinking the words when it came to the trickster.

"I'm taking this seriously. Ship's sinking, time to get off. I mean screw this marble. Let's go check out Pandora." Gabriel said, gesturing to the door.

"It doesn't have to be like that." she murmured.

"I'm afraid it does." He replied.

"If we fight…" she began.

"You die." He finished.

"And what makes you such an expert?" Kali asked.

"I've tousled with those winged ass-monkeys once or twice. Kali, no more tricks. I'm begging you, don't do this." Gabriel said, serious all of the sudden.

"I have to." She sighed as he stepped closer.

"Can't blame me for trying. Still love me?" he shrugged.

"No." Kali said before pulling him in for a passionate kiss.

* * *

Elena smirked at Baldur, keeping up the flirtation that he started.

"Tell me, Elena. How old are you?" he asked.

"Not nearly as old as you." she said simply.

He looked amused as his hand continued further up her thigh. Elena fought the urge to kick him straight in the family jewels.

"You enjoy being a mystery, don't you?" he said.

"Maybe I love it." she replied, staring up at him from underneath her eyelashes as she fought the urge to vomit all over his expensive Armani suit.

* * *

Gabriel continued to kiss Kali as he blindly groped for the two vials of blood that were on the table behind her. They clinked together lightly as he did so but Kali continued to kiss him. When his fingertips touched them again, they clinked louder. This time Kali pushed him away, slicing him on the chin as she did so.

"Ow!" he complained loudly, staring up at her.

"You must take me for a fool... Gabriel. You're bound to me. Now, and forever." She said, holding up her bloodstained fingers.

* * *

Dean and Sam weren't wasting any time as they ran into the kitchen this time. Sam attempted to hurredly unlock the freezer with his lock-picking kit. Suddenly Dean was grabbed and thrown across the room by Zao Shen, who had a bloodstained mouth. He then grasped Sam and whirled him around, pinning him to the fridge as Dean strugged to get up from the metal rack he landed on. Sam began gasping for air as the god used some sort of force to choke him. Dean suddenly ran up behind him once he freed himself and stabbed a wooden stake into his chest. Zao Chen released Sam, falling on the floor as blood dribbled out of his mouth.

"Where the hell is Gabriel?" Dean demanded, looking around.

* * *

Elena twitched slightly as her Winchester alarm went off. They were in danger and there was nothing that she could do about it.

"So… you and Loki… are you together?" Baldur asked, his eyes filled with devious intentions.

"No." Elena said, shaking her head innocenty.

He smirked and leaned in closer, his hand travelling further up her thigh and even pushing her dress up as he put a hand on her cheek intimately.

"That's a shame… for Loki, that is." He whispered in her ear.

Elena finally had enough, unable to control her anger and disgust anymore.

"That's it!" she took him by surprise, grabbing his arms and twisting them around his body, throwing him into the table as she hopped off.

"I belong to Dean Winchester, you sick bastard." She growled.

He could have easily broken her hold, she knew that. But he didn't have to because at that moment, the ballroom doors opened to reveal Gabriel being led in by two gods with Kali trailing them, a pissed off look on her face. They were obviously discovered. Elena let go of Baldur and backed away slowly, panicking as she thought of what to do next. From the look on Gabriel's face, the goddess most likely had his blood as well. She could apparate out but that wouldn't help anyone else much.

"What is it?" Baldur said, turning to glare at Elena as he grabbed her arm.

"Wait." Kali said as Gabriel was forced into a chair.

A few moments later, Sam and Dean were dragged into the ballroom.

"How long have you known?" Gabriel asked, looking up at Kali.

"Long enough." Kali answered.

"How's the rescue going?" Dean asked as he was forced into chairs at the table along with Elena between them.

"She tells me she belongs to you. Call me jealous." Baldur whispered to Dean before walking to stand behind Kali.

"Well, surprise, surprise. The Trickster has tricked us." The goddess announced.

"Kali, don't." Gabriel said in both a warning and pleading tone.

She walked to him and sat in his lap, her hand at his throat.

"You're mine now. And you have something I want." She said, trailing her hand down his chest.

She reached into his jacket and pulled his angel-killing blade out. Elena's eyes widened and she immediately saw the intent in the woman's eyes.

"No…" she whispered, beginning to stand.

Dean caught her arm just as Gabriel looked over at her with a warning look, telling her to stay where she was. Elena slowly sunk back into her seat, hoping that he had a way out of this.

"An Archangel's blade. From the Archangel, Gabriel." Kali announced, standing up as the rest of the gods glared at him.

"Okay, okay! So I got wings, like Kotex. But that doesn't make me any less right about Lucifer." Gabriel said, trying to convince them.

"He's lying. He's a spy." Kali said, sounding emotional.

"I'm not a spy. I'm a runaway. I'm trying to save you. I know my brother, Kali. He should scare the living crap out of you. You can't beat him. I've skipped ahead, seen how this story ends…" Gabriel said.

"Your story. Not ours. Westerners, I swear. The sheer arrogance. You think you're the only ones on earth? You pillage and you butcher in your God's name. But you're not the only religion, and he's not the only God. And now you think you can just rip the planet apart? You're wrong. There are billions of us. An we were here first. If anyone gets to end this world, it's me." Kali leaned forward to stroke his cheek.

"I'm sorry." She whispered.

Then she stabbed the sword into his chest.

"No!" Elena screamed, jumping up and breaking Dean's hold on her easily.

Gabriel screamed, a flash of light escaping from his body before he slumped in the chair, lifeless. Elena stared at him with wide eyes for a moment, unable to believe it. Then she took off towards Kali, not caring that the goddess was more powerful than she was. One of the other gods jumped in front of her, ready to take her on. Elena simply raised her hand and shot the bright light of the grace that Gabriel gave to her into his eyes. He screamed and collapsed to his knees as his eyes burned out of his skull. He fell to the ground dead and she turned to Kali, who looked surprised.

"He wasn't lying when he claimed that I was like a child to him." she said, tears streaming down her cheeks.

She began to advance on the goddess, raising her hand without even caring about the consequences. Gabriel was part of her family. An actual flash of fear went through the woman's eyes.

"Elena!" Dean yelled, stopping her in her tracks.

She turned to glare at him, his shout giving her a moment's hesitance. Then her eyes flashed to Gabriel's lifeless body. Then she noticed it, the clue that gave it all away. Her entire body relaxed and she dropped her hand, turning to Kali.

"I won't kill you." she said, backing away.

"All right you primitive screwheads, listen up." Dean said, looking around.

"Are you outta your mind?" Sam said as Elena walked back to them, her heart lighter now that she knew Gabriel's secret.

"I'm outta options. Now on any other given day, I'd be doing my damndest to, uh, kill you. You filthy murdering chimps. But, uh, hey, desperate times. So even though I'd love nothing better than to slit your throats or let Elena here kill all of you, you dicks. I'm gonna help you. I'm going to help you ice the devil. And then we can all get back to ganking each other, like normal. You want Lucifer, well, dude's not in the Yellow Pages. But we can get him here." Dean offered.

She stared over at him with narrowed eyes, unsure of this alliance even if it was temporary.

"How?" Kali asked.

"First you let those main courses go. Then we talk. We can either take on the devil together, or you lame-ass bitches can eat me. Literally." Dean said.

* * *

"Come on everybody! Let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go. Alright, alright, go, go, go! Get outta here!" Dean yelled as the people all ran out of the building, relieved to be leaving with their lives and limbs intact.

As he turned back to walk into the hotel, he heard a whisper.

"Psst! Dean!" he turned to see a figure sitting in the backseat of the Impala.

"Don't look at me! Act natural. Get in." Gabriel hissed.

Dean walked to it, confused, and climbed into the driver's seat.

"Man, there is nothing natural about this at all. I thought you were dead. I think that Elena knew that you were alive though." Dean said, looking back at him.

"Well of course she did. The girl is smart. You think I'd give Kali my real sword? That thing can kill me!" Gabriel scoffed.

"Then what do they have in there?" he asked, gesturing to the hotel.

"A fake! Made it out of a can of diet orange Slice. So, uh, go snag our blood, would ya?" Gabriel urged him.

"What?" he said.

"I heard you in there. Kali likes you. You can get close. Lift the plasma, then we vamoose." The archangel said.

"No. Hand over the real blade. Better yet, why don't you sack up and help us take down Lucifer." Dean said, glaring at him.

"You can't be serious?" Gabriel said, staring back.

"Deadly." Dean said in an even tone.

"Since when are you butt buddies with a bunch of monsters? That's all they are to you, aren't they?" Gabriel asked, raising an eyebrow at him.

"Alright, you know, Sam was right. It's nuts but it's the best idea I've heard, so unless you have a better one?" he said.

"Well, good luck with that. Me? I'm blowing Jonestown. Those lemmings wanna run off a cliff, that's their business." Gabriel said dismissivley.

"I see right through you, you know that? The smart-ass shell, the whole 'I could give a crap' thing? Believe me, it takes one to know one. And I also know who brings you out of that sarcastic shield of yours. Elena is in there and she isn't going to leave until we're safe. So are you really going to let her face Lucifer down by herself?" Dean asked.

"My girl killed a god. I'm pretty sure she can handle herself long enough to convince you idiots to leave the place." he said dismissively.

"Even if that's true, maybe those freaks in there aren't your blood but they are your family." Dean said.

"They just stabbed me in the friggen heart!" Gabriel exclaimed.

"Maybe, but you still give a crap about 'em, don't you?" Dean countered.

"Dean." Gabriel sighed.

"Now they're gonna die in there, without you. We could all die in there, including Elena. I believe that you care about her." Dean said.

"I can't kill my brother." Gabriel said, finally saying what was really stopping him.

"Can't or won't?" Dean said.

Silence filled the car.

"That's what I thought."

* * *

"So you're going to summon Lucifer." Kali asked.

Elena was sitting on the table where she was sitting before swinging her legs back and forth.

"Sort of. I just need you to squeegee some stuff from my ribs and he'll come running." Sam said, gesturing to his torso.

"Breaking them would be easier." Kali said and Elena glared at her.

"This is a bad idea. We should be running the other way." she said.

"What makes you think you get a say?" Kali asked, turning to Elena.

"Since, apparently, I can burn your eyes out." she shot back.

Kali concentrated on her with fury in her eyes but nothing happened.

"Maybe you're out of batteries." Elena snapped.

"Elena…" Sam sighed, trying to get her to stop taunting the goddess of destruction.

"Show's over." Dean said, interrupting the tension in the room.

"Sword's a fake, and Gabriel, he's still kicking. I hate to break it to you, sister, but you've been tricked." Dean said, looking at Kali.

The woman turned to Elena, looking deadly.

"Did you know this?" she demanded.

Elena simply smirked and sat back, looking triumphant.

"How?" Sam asked, surprised.

"You two should really know better. Do you see any wings burnt into the chair or anywhere else?" Elena said, gesturing to the place where the fake Gabriel body was sitting, probably an illusion from the archangel himself.

* * *

At the front desk, where Mercury was waiting, a hand hit the bell.

"Checking in." the newcomer said.

The god turned and smiled nervously, noting the broken down appearance of the guest.

"Lucifer, thanks for coming." Mercury said breathlessly.

"Oh, you did right calling me." Lucifer said, smirking back.

"It's just... the way the talk is heading in there, it's... it's insane!" Mercury shrugged.

"You know, I never understood you pagans, always fighting, always happy to sell out your own kind. No wonder you forfeited this planet to us. You are worse than humans. You're worse than demons. And yet you claim to be gods." Lucifer said, pointing at him.

Mercury's smile faded as he slowly twisted his fingers. Finally, Lucifer flicked them and his neck snapped, causing him to fall to the ground lifeless.

"And they call me prideful." He commented, turning to walk off.

* * *

They heard screaming in the hallway as the lights began to flicker in the ballroom.

"What's happening?" Baldur demanded, looking around.

"It's him." Sam, Elena, and Dean all said at the same time, gathering together.

"How?" Kali asked, looking between them.

"Does it matter? Shazzam us outta here, would ya?" Dean asked, turning to Elena.

"She still has your blood." She said, gesturing to Kali.

"Then you do it." he said, facing the gods.

"We can't." Baldur said, staring straight ahead as the doors opened slowly.

"Of course you can't. You didn't say mother, may I?" Lucifer said, walking in with his smirk firmly in place.

He was covered in blood, probably from massacring the other gods. Dean and Sam stumbled backwards, pulling Elena with them.

"Sam, Dean, good to see you again. Elena, you look lovely as ever." He said.

Baldur and Kali looked back at them, surprised that they were actually on a first name basis with the devil. Then Baldur turned back with an angry look, advancing on him.

"Baldur, don't." Kali warned him.

"You think you own the planet? What gives you the right?" Baldur yelled as he ran up to Lucifer to challenge him.

Lucifer immediately stabbed his arm into Baldur's chest, ripping him apart from the inside.

"No one gives us the right, we take it." he informed the god before letting him drop to the ground with his arm soaked in blood.

Kali suddenly became enraged, fire engulfing her arms as she faced him headon. As soon as she threw it over him, Sam, Elena, and Dean leapt over an overturned table for cover. They felt, rather than heard, the flames dissipate. Then they heard Kali's cry of pain as Lucifer hit her and threw her to the ground.

"You okay?" Sam asked, looking over at Elena and Dean.

"Not really. Better late then never, huh?" their eyes widened as they turned to see Gabriel crouched next to them.

Even Dean smiled slightly as they realized that Gabriel had finally decided to man up.

"Guard this, with your life." he slammed a DVD case into Dean's chest.

They peeked over the table to see Lucifer about to stomp on Kali and kill her. Suddenly he was blown backwards through the doors and Gabriel was standing in front of Kali, his real angel-killing blade in hand.

"Lucy, I'm home." he announced.

Lucifer stood, scowling, as he advanced on Kali again.

"Not this time." Gabriel said, moving to stand in front of her while brandishing the silver sword.

He bent down without taking his eyes off of his brother.

"Guys! Get her outta here." He yelled.

Dean and Sam ran forward, shuffling past Lucifer with Kali and Elena following. Gabriel stood in front of them, circling around Lucifer until they had a clear shot at the hallway.

"Gabriel…" Elena said, pausing at the door to look back at him.

"Go." he said over his shoulder.

"Over a girl. Gabriel, really? I mean I knew you were slumming, but I hope you didn't catch anything." Lucifer said, looking disgusted.

"Lucifer, you're my brother. And I love you. But you are a great big bag of dicks." Gabriel said, shaking his head.

"Wait, what did you just say to me?" Lucifer asked, serious now.

"Look at yourself! Boo hoo! Daddy was mean to me, so I'm gonna smash up all his toys." he mock-whined.

"Watch your tone." The other angel warned.

"Play the victim all you want. But you and me? We know the truth. Dad loved you best. More than Michael, more than me. Then he brought the new baby home and you couldn't handle it. So this is all just one big temper tantrum. Time to grow up." Gabriel snapped.

* * *

They had to dodge different body parts of the gods in the hallway as they ran towards the entrance. When they got there, Kali waved her hand and unlocked the doors. Elena paused as they ran through them, looking back with uncertainty. Dean and Sam were safe, hopefully. But Gabriel wasn't. And she couldn't just leave him behind. She turned to see them approaching the Impala.

"I'm not getting in that thing." Kali said disgustedly.

"Just get in the car, princess." Dean snapped.

Then he turned to see Elena standing there.

"What are you doing? Come on." he said, gesturing to the car.

She quickly backed up and pulled the doors closed, locking them with her mind.

"Elena!" Dean yelled as he ran up to them.

"Don't let them through." Elena said, unsure of whether Kali could hear her or not.

Then she turned and ran back to the ballroom as quickly as she could with the heels on. When she got there, she could hear Lucifer and Gabriel still talking.

"… all just one big temper tantrum. Time to grow up." Gabriel said just as she rounded the corner.

"Gabriel, if you're doing this for Michael..." Lucifer began, his eyes flashing back to Elena.

Gabriel glanced over his shoulder and rolled his eyes at her stubborness.

"Screw him. If he were standing here, I'd shiv his ass too." He informed his older brother.

"You disloyal…" Lucifer said, shaking his head.

"Oh, I'm loyal. To them!" Gabriel interrupted him.

"Who? These so called gods?" Lucifer scoffed, gesturing around at the bloodbath around them.

"To people, Lucifer. People." Gabriel said, gesturing back to Elena.

"So you're willing to die, for a pile of cockroaches. Why?"

"Because Dad was right. They are better than us." Gabriel shrugged and Elena felt a sense of pride that he was finally admitting what he thought.

"They are broken. Flawed! Abortions." Lucifer yelled.

"Damn right they're flawed. But a lot of them try. To do better, to forgive. And you should see the Spearmint Rhino! I've been riding the pine a long time. But I'm in the game now, and I'm not on your side, or Michael's. I'm on theirs." Gabriel said, pointing back to Elena.

She stepped forward slowly but he gestured for her to stay where she was.

"Brother, don't make me do this." Lucifer said softly and, for the first time, Elena felt like she was seeing a real emotion out of the devil.

"No one makes us do anything." Gabriel said simply.

"I know you think you're doing the right thing, Gabriel. But I know where your heart truly lies." Lucifer said, his eyes flashing to Elena.

Her eyes caught sight of something and she forced herself not to look at it so that she wouldn't give it away. Suddenly he turned and caught the blade as the real Gabriel lifted it into the air.

"No!" she screamed as he drove it into Gabriel's chest.

"Amateur hocus pocus. Don't forget, you learned all your tricks from me, little brother." Lucifer said, putting his hand on Gabriel's cheek.

Elena felt her entire body filling with horror and devastation as he twisted the blade and light flowed out of Gabriel's body for real this time. For some reason, it all seemed to travel towards her instead of disappearing into the air. She felt a rush of warmth as it hit her but Lucifer didn't seem to notice as he dropped Gabriel onto the ground. His wings were blackened onto the wooden floor. Elena didn't have words to say so instead she flew forward, not caring if she attracted Lucifer's attention. She collapsed on her knees next to Gabriel's body, her hands on his chest.

"No!" she cried, tears streaming down her face as she knew there were no take backs this time.

It wasn't a trick. His lifeless eyes stared at the ceiling and Elena knew that the scorch marks that she was sitting on were staining her perfect white dress but she didn't care. She turned her eyes on Lucifer, who was staring down at his little brother's dead body.

"Why do you have to do this?" she wailed in a hoarse voice, her entire body trembling with grief as what just happened really occurred to her.

His eyes flashed to hers and, for a moment, she saw a build up of wetness in them. Then she knew that the devil wasn't some emotionless, evil being. He was an angel. He could feel emotion as easily as Cas and Gabriel. He just felt it about the wrong things. Elena scrambled up to her feet, her heart heavy but her mind fired up.

"You are one evil son of a bitch! You… you killed your own brother!" she screamed, taking it on faith that he wouldn't smite her right then and there.

He continued to stare at her.

"You really loved him." he marveled over her showing of emotions.

"Of course I loved him! That's what we do! When you think of all the hate you have for humans, remember that the one thing we do that separates us from evil monsters is that we love!" she screamed.

"You think that I do not love?" he said, cocking his head to the side.

"I think you don't understand what love truly is." She fired back, spitting out of anger and devastation.

"You should not speak of what you do not understand." He warned her.

Her eyes flickered over his body and they were suddenly attracted to something. There, sitting on his left hand, was a silver wedding ring. She knew that it didn't belong to him. Lucifer getting married sounded like a Saturday Night Live sketch. It had to be Nick's, his vessel.

"Why did you keep that on?" she asked, wiping her face of the wetness covering it.

He looked down at it as well.

"I didn't notice it." he said, shrugging.

He was trying to act careless but Elena could see a hint of the emotion she'd seen a few moments ago when he reacted to Gabriel's death.

"I don't believe you." she said in an accusing tone.

"I don't lie." He said.

She scoffed.

"I think that you recognize the symbolism of that ring. I think that you recognize the power of it and you recognize that there is something about humans that isn't evil. There is something about us that is more remarkable than you ever thought there could be." she said.

His eyes narrowed at her.

"Do not try to assign humanity to me, Elena. You are speaking of things that you do not understand." He said.

Elena stared back at him before she did something incredibly stupid. Possibly the stupidest thing she'd ever done in her life. She stalked forward and slapped the devil across the face. It didn't hurt him at all. In fact, he was barely fazed. Her hand twinged with pain but she ignored it.

"I saw you almost shed a tear for you brother. But that does not excuse you for killing him." she snapped at him.

He lifted his head and stared back at her.

"I gain more respect for you each time that I meet you, Elena Gilbert. You are a fascinating creature." He said.

She stared back at him, not backing down as she anticipated her upcoming smiting.

"You can rest well the fact that Meg is being… punished… for her actions against you and your family. Also, do not try to raise my brother. It will not work and you will only succeed in killing yourself. I'll see you in Detroit." He said simply before disappearing.

Elena let out a breath before turning back to Gabriel's body. Tears sprung to her eyes once again and she walked to it, kneeling next to him once again.

"I'm so sorry. This is… this is my fault." She whimpered, leaning her head over his and her tears fell on his cheeks.

She pressed a kiss to his forehead before closing his eyes and turning to stand up, sliding off her heels to walk out. She made it to the doors and pushed them open to see the rest of them waiting.

"Elena." Dean said, walking to her and gathering her in his arms.

"Gabriel is dead." She said numbly, letting her head fall against his chest.

* * *

They were in a motel room hours away from Elysian fields, happy to get away from the hotel. Dean had put in the DVD that Gabriel gave him in his last few minutes. Elena was curled up on the bed with her knees pulled up to her chest and her eyes staring blankly at the screen. She was in comfortable clothes but her eyes kept darting over to the chair where the white dress and shoes were laying, the last thing she ever got from Gabriel. She hadn't said a word since informing them that Gabriel was dead.

Suddenly the title card began rolling on the film and, after the disclaimer, the movie began.

"Dear Diary, being a high powered business president is super-fun. But sooo exhausting. Sometimes, I just need to relax. I need Casa Erotica." The voiceover of an annoying girl said as a camera panned up lingerie clad body.

"Room Service!" a voice announced.

"Come in!" the woman said, looking up.

"Gabriel wanted you to guard this with your life?" Sam asked skeptically, turning to Dean with a raised eyebrow.

"Maybe he's a fan. It is a good one." Dean shrugged.

Elena didn't even have the urge to glare at him for that crack even though he wanted her to.

The door to the hotel room opens and Gabriel appeared, wearing a mustache and a service waiter's outfit.

"I've got the grilled bass you ordered." he said.

"Ooh. Polish?" the woman asked.

"Hungarian." Gabriel said, grinning.

They all stared at the scene, slightly disturbed. On the screen, Gabriel was passionately kissing the woman. Both were moaning loudly.

"What the hell's going on?" Sam whispered, traumatized.

Suddenly, Gabriel turned to the screen and pulled off the mustache.

"Elena, Sam, Dean. You're probably wondering what the hell is going on. Well, if you're watching this, I'm dead. Oh please! Stop sobbing, it's embarrassing for all of us." Elena bit her lip and watched the screen, realizing that he hadn't been lying about looking ahead.

Gabriel knew that he was going to die and that was why he gave Dean the DVD.

"Without me, you've got zero shot at killing Lucifer, sorry! But you can trap him. The cage you sprung Lucifer from? It's still down there. And maybe, just maybe, you can shove his ass back in. Not that it'll be easy. You gotta get the cage open, trick my bro back into it. And uh, oh yeah, avoid Michael and the God Squad. But hey, details, right? And here's the big secret, Lucifer himself doesn't even know! The key to the cage? It's out there. Actually it's keys, plural. Four keys, well, four rings. From the Horsemen. You get 'em all, you got the cage. Can't say I'm betting on you boys. But, uh, hey! I've been wrong before. And if anything, I have faith in Elena's ability to whip your asses into shape. And Dean, you were right. I was afraid to stand up to my brother, not any more. So this is me, standing up." Gabriel said, standing up proudly.

A small smile formed on Elena's mouth despite herself.

"And this is, me, lying down."

He grabbed the woman, throwing her on the bed and continuing their activities, clothes flying all over the place. Elena, Dean, and Sam's expressions went from confused to disturbed.

"Oh, uh, oh! Oh man!" Sam said, reaching for the remote and switching the television off.

"Horsemen, huh? Well we got War's. We nicked Famine's. That's two down. Collect all four? All we need is Pestilence and Death." Dean listed, turning to look at them.

"Oh, is that all?" Sam said, raising his eyebrows.

"It's a plan." Dean shrugged.

Elena glanced at them and nodded.

"It's our best shot." She agreed.

* * *

Kali sighed as she walked into the hotel, looking up on the remains of her former family with sadness. She was alone in the world now, but not for long. She walked into the ballroom and saw Gabriel's body still strewn across the floor with his wings burned into the ground.

"You bastard." She said, kneeling down next to him. "Don't you know that girl loved you too much for you to die? More than I can ever think of loving you and she doesn't even want to have sex with you."

Silence reigned in the room.

"They saved my life and I hate being in the debt of mortals. So… wake up." Kali said, pressing her hand to his chest.

His eyes suddenly flew open as he inhaled sharply.

* * *

**Author's Note: Don't hate me! I brought Gabriel back! Yay! He will definitely be back both sooner and later than you think if that makes any sense. I just thought that Kali, of all beings, might be the one who is powerful enough to bring an angel back. I really just didn't want to kill him off but I still wanted the confrontation between Elena and Lucifer.**

**A few things:**

**1. I'm going to answer questions and put spoilers in the next chapter. Sorry I know I'm putting it off but I'm not ready yet. So if you've thought of a new question, throw it at me.**

**2. A certain King of the Crossroads comes back in the next chapter.**

**3. Another character (Death) is introduced (in a cool way)**

**4. Only three or four chapters left!**

**5. Yes, there is something significant about Gabriel's grace flowing into Elena when he 'died'. It shall be revealed at some point.**

**6. REVIEW PLEASE!**


	27. Chapter 27

**Disclaimer: I do not own TVD or Supernatural**

**Thanks to RHatch89, Slytherin Cat, DrawingMyHeartOut, JMHUW, Nyssandria, CherrySin, IgnitingFireworks, Dark Alana, Hollywood17, xxPaige23xx, slayerdiaries, diehardromantic, DrAnime203, Dark-Supernatural-Angel, chiwi, MrsMaeveSalvatoreMikaelson, MelissaIsLame and the two guests for reviewing! Love you all!**

**To one of the guests, no the last chapter wasn't a flashback. They already left Mystic Falls and Dean said, "we've barely slowed down since we left Mystic Falls a few days ago" at the beginning of the chapter. Sorry if it was confusing.**

**A few things:**

**1. This is a week after Gabriel's death.**

**2. Elena is experiencing some strange side effects and that's where we pick up.**

**3. There is a visit to a certain place that is not earth in this chapter.**

**4. There is a surprise character that shows up a little earlier than normal.**

**5. Elena's outfits are on my profile.**

**6. I lied by accident, Death isn't in this chapter. Sorry.**

**7. PLEASE READ THIS IS IMPORTANT! I'm not sure how I feel about this chapter. It's a little dark so really tell me what you think about Elena and her actions in this chapter. It'll help me a lot with future writing on this story.**

* * *

Elena winced as she sat up in the bed. Flashes went through her head, causing her to inhale sharply each time. They weren't images so much as a feeling of being pulled somewhere. She bent over, clutching at her head. This was the seventh night in a row that she woke up with this happening. It had also been a week since Gabriel's death. She knew that they had to be connected somehow. She felt and heard the bed rustling beside her as Dean sat up, putting his hand on her back.

"Elena?" he said, his voice tired but worried.

"It's happening again." She whimpered, curling her legs up to her chest.

"Is it Gabriel? Did something happen to you when he died?" Dean asked the question for the millionth time.

"I don't know. I just want it to stop." She said, pulling at her hair.

She only felt it at night, never during the day for some reason. They'd been following Pestilence around for the last week, tracking him through the sickness that was spreading through the country in the form of Swine flu. But that wasn't the only thing that was happening. Every single town that he hit, other omens were happening. Statues of saints and the Virgin Mary crying tears of blood was the main weird thing that they heard so far.

Elena looked over at Dean.

"I think something is calling me to them." She said.

"How would they do that?" he asked.

"I don't know. What if it's Cas? Or what if Gabriel is alive? I think I have to go figure out who it is." She explained.

"What if it's Lucifer or Michael? You can't just pop off when you have no idea what's happening." Dean argued loudly, causing Sam to wake up from the bed next to them.

"I don't think I have much a choice, Dean. It's getting stronger every night. Eventually they're going to bring me to them without my permission. This way, I can be ready for anything." She said, putting her hand on his cheek.

"Does it have something to do with Gabriel's light flowing into you when he died?" Sam asked, realizing what they were talking about.

"I don't know. Maybe." She said, looking between the brothers.

"Well what if one of the angels could sense that? What if they're trying to lure you into a trap?" Dean asked.

"I don't think it is, Dean. Please, just trust me." she said pleadingly, looking deep into his eyes.

He sighed and nodded.

"Only if you take this." he said, pulling the angel-killing blade that they had out of the bag at the edge of the bed.

"Okay." She agreed.

A few minutes later, they were all getting dressed. Elena was in a simple pair of jeans with a white shirt and a jacket as well as her Converse. Surprisingly enough, after having the ability to change her clothes at a moment's notice, it was nice ot take it slow sometimes. Especially when her and Dean went into the bathroom to change together. She was stripped down to her underwear and Dean was in a pair of jeans with no shirt when he pushed her against the wall.

"Dean." She laughed as he titled her head back with his hand on her chin.

"You…" he began, his mouth descending on hers.

He gave her a light kiss that he knew would leave her wanting more.

"… are…" he continued, kissing up her jaw to her ear.

She gasped and arched her body up towards him when he nipped at her ear.

"… beautiful…" he whispered in her ear, his hands on her hips and his thumbs drawing light circles on them.

Elena let her head fall back to give him more access as he began to kiss down her neck. Before she knew it, he had her sitting on the counter.

"… and…" he said, one of his hands tangling in her hair and other bringing her body closer to his as he stood between her legs.

"… you… are…" Dean murmured, his teeth nipping ever so lightly at her collarbone.

His head drew back and he looked her full in the eyes, his own green orbs burning with desire.

"… mine." He finished, drawing close to her lips once again.

"Yes." She agreed to the second part, wrapping her legs loosely around his hips as they began to kiss.

He let out a contented noise as he buried his face in her hair and wrapped his arms around her back. She sighed happily and let her head lay on his shoulder.

"I love you." she whispered, fear suddenly settling in her heart.

They were drawing ever closer to the apocalypse. What if she lost Dean for good this time? Sam too? What if she died permanently herself?

"I love you too." He said, stroking her hair softly.

She drew away and smiled at him, hiding the turmoil within her.

"We should get dressed." Elena said.

"True." He nodded, still holding onto her.

"Dean!" she laughed, squirming in his grip.

"I don't even want to know what is taking you two so long!" Sam yelled from the room.

Elena gave Dean a mock severe look and he sighed, stepping away. She gave him one last kiss before sliding off of the counter. When they walked back into the room, both fully dressed and Elena's hair in a simply ponytail, Sam was waiting on them. He handed her the angel-blade after she tied her dagger onto her pants just in case.

"Are you sure about this?" Dean asked warily.

"I'm positive." She said, nodding as she turned to them.

"I'll be back soon. Go to the next town and I'll meet you." she said.

"Sounds good." They nodded.

She closed her eyes and thought about the feeling that she kept getting, summoning it up in her mind. All of the sudden she felt herself pulled from the room and her eyes flew open as she felt a light breeze.

"What the…" she said, looking around with wide eyes.

It was either heaven or she was back in Mystic Falls. When the door ripped open to reveal someone she didn't expect, she knew it was the former.

"Jenna!" she said, running up the steps to her home and embracing her tightly.

"Hi." Her aunt said, embracing her back tightly.

Elena felt her heart filling with happiness at seeing her again.

"What are you doing here, Elena?" she asked, pulling away.

"I, uh… I felt something pulling me here. Was it you?" she asked.

"No, let's go ask the others. But I'm pretty sure it wasn't any of us." She said, gesturing for Elena to walk in the house.

The first thing she caught sight of in the house was the man walking towards her.

"Dad?" she murmured, feeling a little anxious at seeing.

It was different seeing him and seeing Jenna and her mother. He was actually a hunter. He had every reason for being disappointed in her because of the amount of supernatural friends she had.

"Hey honey." He said, smiling at her.

Elena didn't hesitate a second longer, recognizing the familiar welcoming sparkle in his eye. She launched forward and threw herself into his arms. He hugged her back tightly; wrapping her in that familiar embrace that she missed so much.

"I can't believe I'm seeing you." she said emotionally.

"I know." He replied, still squeezing her tightly.

She finally pulled away and his eyes fell to the weapon in her hand.

"I see you came prepared." He said, raising an eyebrow at her.

"Oh… this is… I…" she began.

"I know what that is." Grayson said, interrupting her.

She looked at him warily as he put a hand on her cheek. Past him, she saw her mother standing there and smiling.

"You have no idea…" he began, trailing off as tears filled his eyes.

Elena steeled herself for a lecture, wondering if he would be as angry as his ghost was when he confronted her.

"… how proud we are of you. All of us." He said, smiling.

She felt tears sting her eyes at his words.

"Thank you, Dad." She said, her words coming out in a bit of a sob.

She felt a hand lay on her back and turned to smile at Jenna.

"There's someone else who wants to talk to you." she said.

Elena looked around to see someone she hadn't seen in a while standing next to her mother with his hands in the pockets of his pants.

"Elena." he nodded, his face solemn and unsure.

"John." She said, not at all surprised to see him there since her mother told her last time she was in heaven that he was spending time with Grayson.

Her eyes flickered to her father and then to her mother, both of whom nodded at her.

"Let's go out on the porch." She said, gesturing outside as she wanted to talk to him alone.

* * *

Sam and Dean grimaced around as they walked through the hospital, sick people surrounding them and all with the same symptoms. It looked exactly the same as the last three hospitals they'd been too. The doctor handed them surgical masks to put on and protect their own immune systems.

"Check it out… I look like the king of pop." Dean said with a grin as they walked even though Sam couldn't see it.

Sam sighed and shook his head.

"Too soon?" he chuckled and Sam didn't reply, not feeling the need to even touch that one. "Too soon." Dean nodded

"Don't get me wrong… I'm glad the CDC is here, but what we really need is vaccine." The female doctor said, turning to face him.

"You got that right." Dean nodded, looking around at the dozens of sick people all over the place.

"Well, tell me, have you noticed anything unusual about the strain? Any signs of behavioral change, like aggression, maybe?" Sam asked.

"Excuse me?" she said, disbelief in her eyes.

"Have the flu victims shown any signs of, uh, homicidal tendencies?" Dean questioned.

The doctor stared at them before laughing without amusement..

"Uh... symptomatically speaking, we're looking at a relatively mild case of swine flu here. Probably add up to a miserable week off of work, and that's about it." she said, sounding like she was pretty much done with them.

"So nothing unusual." Dean confirmed.

"Hmm. Day and a half ago, we didn't have a single case." She said, taking a chart from another doctor and signing it. "Now we're looking at over 70. The infectious equivalent of a briefcase bomb. So, yeah, I might call that a little unusual."

"Day and a half?" Sam muttered to Dean.

"That's the same time those statues started crying." Dean said, realizing that it was the same with the other hospitals.

"Yep." Sam agreed.

"I'm sorry. What was that?" the woman said, staring at them questioningly as the other doctor walked away.

"What was what?" Dean replied, staring at her.

"Did you just say a bunch of statues started crying?" she asked, her brow furrowing.

"What?" Sam laughed, trying to brush it off. "… why, no. No. W-who would…?"

"Who would say that, huh? Crazy people." Dean cut him off, laughing as well.

"Exactly." Sam nodded.

"Yeah, which we are not." Dean said.

"No." Sam agreed.

She stared at them, skeptical of the claim that they weren't crazy.

"Just... get us some vaccine." She said, turning to walk off.

"Whew." Dean sighed, turning to Sam.

"We need Elena. She always knows how to make us look sane... well more sane." Sam said.

"You're not kidding." Dean nodded.

* * *

Elena sat on the porch swing and John leaned against the house, unsure of whether or not she wanted him sitting with her.

"How's heaven?" she asked, looking up at him as she kicked her legs back and forth.

"It's… amazing." He said, looking around.

Then he looked at her and smiled.

"You deserve to be here." Elena nodded, looking down at the angel-killing blade in her hand.

"Do I?" he asked, sounding surprised.

She looked up at him and saw doubt on his face.

"You sacrificed yourself for me. Of course you should have a place in heaven. It was very noble of you." she informed him.

"I suppose that I think that one good deed doesn't make up for the all of the bad ones."

"Says who?" she replied, looking around. "Obviously someone thinks you're good enough for this place."

"And I think that I have you to thank for that. I did many regrettable things in my life. One of them was leaving you behind. I was a scared little boy and I ran away from you." he said.

Elena looked up at him, seeing the regret clear in his eyes.

"Sit next to me, please." She finally said.

John looked surprised again.

"I'll let you hold a real angel-killing blade. You know that stirs up the hunter in you." she bribed him with a smile.

To her surprise, he let out a chuckle and walked to the swing, sitting on it with her. Smiling wider, she handed the sword to him and he twirled it in his hands as she looked down at it.

"I was angry at you for leaving me… for a while. Mostly because I had no idea for seventeen years. I felt lied to and betrayed by everyone in my life and it made it worse that I didn't even find about it from a family member. But now… I'm grateful." Elena said, facing him.

He looked at her with a furrowed .

"Who knows where I would be if you and Isobel chose to raise me? I wouldn't have Jeremy like I do now. I might not even have Bonnie and Caroline. I certainly wouldn't have met the Salvatores or Alaric. Then there's the Winchesters. Yeah my life could be easier but I could also be dead by Klaus' hand." She explained.

"You are content with your life right?" John asked.

"Well I'm not exactly content with the apocalypse happening but I am happy with the relationships I've formed with the people that I love." she said.

"The apocalypse…" he said, handing her the weapon back.

"Yeah, but we're gonna stop it." she said confidently.

"I'm sure you are." He said, smiling.

She stared at him for a moment.

"I wish that I could have had more time with you. I think that we really could have had a good relationship, if I'd only tried harder." Elena said regretfully. "But sadly enough, I realized that when I was reading your goodbye letter."

John reached over and took her hand hesitantly.

"I'm always here. Just like your parents and just like Jenna. What happened between us before doesn't have to be the end of everything… if that's what you want." He offered.

A slow smile spreaded across her face.

"Of course it's what I want." She said, feeling much more at peace with the entire John situation than she ever had on earth.

She took them both by surprise by throwing her arms around his neck and hugging him.

"Thank you. For giving me this life." she whispered.

"Thank you for allowing me to be a part of it." he replied, hugging her back warmly.

She drew away and smiled at him. Then a porchlight shattered above them and glass rained down on them.

"Oh no." she murmured, looking up.

"What is it?" John said, confused.

"Angel." She said, taking his hand and yanking him up.

She practically dragged him inside and slammed the door shut.

"Mom? Dad? Do you happen to have a rosary? she asked, facing them.

"Afraid not." Her father said, looking slightly amused and slightly worried.

"Well I guess this'll have to be it then." She said, turning back to the door. "Everyone get behind me."

"Elena, John and I are hunters as well. We can…" she turned to face him.

"You're vampire hunters. This is a whole nother thing. Have you seriously never come across angels? You're in heaven." She said.

They all shook their heads.

"Elena, we're still your family. We're supposed to protect you." Miranda said.

"Not this time. Not against this enemy. Get behind me." she said, gesturing again as she wanted to protect her family.

She had no doubt that whatever angel this was could torture her family whether they were living or not. If it was Michael, they were all screwed. The lights began flickering and shattering as the ground rumbled.

"Shit! Sorry!" Elena said, flushing as she accidentally cursed in front of her parents, her biological father, and her aunt.

"No, it's no problem. I agree with your statement." Grayson said as they backed away from the door.

Elena grinned as she held the angel blade out in front of her protectively. When the door flew open, she gripped it and threw her other arm out to protect her family as much as she could. Her eyes widened when she saw an unfamiliar angel walk into the room. He was wearing a grey v-neck shirt, a black blazer, and a pair of dark jeans with black boots. His blonde hair was sticking up all over the place.

"Well it's about time, darling. I've been trying you for a week." He said.

"Who are you?" she demanded.

"Oh, my apologies. How incredibly rude of me. The name is Balthazar." He said, his hands up in surrender as he stepped forward and they backed away.

* * *

"Let me guess - another steamin'-hot pile of swine flu." Bobby over the speakerphone as they drove down the road at night.

All three of them were more than on edge. Not just because they hadn't found Pestilence yet, but also because Elena had been gone for the entire day.

"Yep." Dean answer.

"Doesn't make any sense, Bobby. Pestilence touched down here. I'm sure of it." Sam sighed, sounding frustrated that they hadn't found the horseman yet.

"But why is he dealing them soft serve like swine flu when he's got the croatoan virus up his sleeve? I don't get it." Dean threw in.

"Doesn't matter what the sick son of a bitch is doing. What matters is this is the fourth town he's hit… that we know of… and we're still eating his dust. Did you get anything? We got even a snowball at probable next target?" the older hunter asked.

"Uh, no pattern we can see. But, if she's seeing an ally, Elena might have a clue once she gets back from wherever she his.

"Okay. Hold on." Bobby sighed.

They heard squeaking and assumed that he was rolling to his desk.

"Well, far as I can tell, he's still heading East, so... head East, I guess." He said.

They both stared at the phone, incredulous.

"East?" they said at the same time.

"Bobby, we're in West Nevada. East is practically all there is." Dean scoffed.

"Yeah, well, you better get to drivin'." Bobby said, the 'idjit' implied before he hung up.

They sighed before getting themselves ready for a long trip.

"Say... I've got an idea." They both whirled around to see Crowley sitting comfortably in the backseat.

The tires screeched as Dean swerved on the empty road, slamming on the breaks. Sam whirled around with the demon blade, stabbing it into the seat where the demon was sitting before.

"Did you get him?" Dean grunted.

"He's gone." Sam breathed.

A knock on the window startled them both and they looked to see Crowley standing outside of the Impala.

"Fancy a fag and a chat?"

* * *

"What do you want?" Elena demanded, not relaxing from her protective stance.

"I just want to talk." Balthazar replied, standing still and allowing her to stare him down.

She simply scoffed in response.

"Gabriel." He said.

Suddenly her body slipped out of its defensive stance and she straightened up, staring at him.

"What about him?" she asked, her arm dropping slowly.

"Did you think he would leave you without a backup?" Balthazar asked.

"You know… what happened?" she asked.

"I know that our brother stabbed him with a sword much like the one you are holding." The angel nodded.

"And how do I know that you're not lying to try to get me to Michael or something?" she asked.

"Darling, if I wanted to take you to Michael, you would be with Michael. Now you can trust me or you can keeping riding blind without any angels on your shoulder." He offered.

She stared at him before turning to look at her family.

"I need to talk to him." she admitted.

"Are you sure?" Miranda asked hesitantly.

Elena glanced back at him.

"If Gabriel trusted him, I trust him. You don't know what Gabriel did for me." she said.

"Of course we know what he did for you. He visited us a few times, gave us updates on you. How do you think we know all that you've done?" Grayson said.

"Gabriel?" she said, a smile breaking across her face.

"Yes. He would tell us all these stories of what you did. He told us how you protect those boys and how you tangle with demons and angels, always fighting for what you think is right. That makes us more proud than anything." Miranda said, reaching out to touch her face.

Elena bit her lip and shrugged.

"It's not that hard when you raised me to know the right way was the best way." she said.

"You're still amazing." Jenna piped up.

"I don't want to break up this nice family moment but we have a limited amount of time before your presence is noted and, once you stop the apocalypse, there will be plenty of time to bond with your family because Michael will no longer be ruling heaven with an iron fist." Balthazar said.

Elena turned to him and nodded before hugging all of her family tightly, leaving John for last.

"I'll see you later." She said, hugging him.

She walked out of the house after the angel, hoping that she was doing the right thing. She stopped and looked back at them, waving quickly. Then she shut the door and turned to Balthazar.

"What is so important that you had to keep killing my head to get me here?" she asked, jogging down the steps after him.

"Your new upgrade." He said, walking down the empty street with her.

"My what? And why are we walking?" she asked.

"Because it's always best to keep on the move when in heaven if you don't want to be found." He said, snapping his fingers.

Suddenly they were walking in a very empty yet beautiful green park. It was slightly drizzling but it wasn't cold.

"Where is this?" she asked, turning around.

"London in April." Balthazar said.

"Is this your heaven?" she asked, remembering that everyone, even angels, had his or her own heaven.

"No, this is George VI's." He said.

"Seriously?" Elena said.

He nodded, shrugging.

"He shares it with his wife."

Elena looked around.

"Hmm. Okay so… upgrade?" she asked.

"You do know that Gabriel knew his death was coming?" she nodded. "Well he wasn't going to very well leave you helpless, was he? Not with Lucifer still hanging around. So he gave you his grace. It flowed right into you as he died. But that wasn't enough. That's why I've been trying to get you up here so badly. You needed some of heaven's juice to activate your new power." Balthazar explained.

Elena stopped and stared at him.

"Wait… what?" she said, stunned by this.

She didn't think that Gabriel's light touching her would actually do anything to affect her.

"Let me put it this way, you've got the power of being an archangel without being an angel. Basically, you're an angel without wings because only Father Dearest can give those out." Balthazar said plainly.

"What does that even mean?" she asked.

"It means, darling, that you are more powerful than any angel except for the archangels. Isn't that bloody fantastic?" Balthazar asked.

"Fantastic? You just informed me that I'm not even close to human anymore! I got used to being human after almost nineteen years of it! I liked being human!" she exclaimed, waving her hands.

"Don't get angry with me, I didn't do it. I'm just the messenger. And don't worry, you're still aging. You're not immortal… yet" Balthazar said defensively.

Elena shook her head as she began pacing.

"I can't believe he did that. What a bastard? Can't he have just given me a goodbye hug or something?" she ranted, feeling like she would slap Gabriel if she ever saw him again.

"These abilities can help you in the apocalypse." Balthazar said, causing her to stop in her tracks.

She turned slowly, narrowing her eyes at him.

"Seriously?" Elena asked.

He nodded, confirming his words.

"Tell me how to use these abilities." She said, her outlook totally changed on this now that she knew there was something she could do about the apocalypse.

Balthazar smiled slowly.

* * *

"You're upset. We should discuss it. Not here, but…" Crowley backed away as they got out of the Impala and advanced on him.

"You want to talk? After what you did to us?" Sam demanded angrily.

"After what I… what I did to you?! I gave you the colt!" he yelled defensively.

"Yeah, and you knew it wouldn't work against the devil!" Sam shouted back.

"I never!" the demon gasped as if he was truly offended.

"You set us up. We almost lost people on that suicide run. Good people!" the younger brother said accusingly.

"Who you take on the ride is your own business! Look, everything is still the same. We're all still in this together." Crowley said, turning to look at Dean before looking back at Sam.

"Sure we are." Sam scoffed before attempting to stab him again.

The blade cut through air and Crowley spoke from behind him where he teleported to.

"Call your dog off… please." He said to Dean.

The older brother caught Sam's shirt, holding him in place.

"Give me one good reason." Dean said.

"I can give you Pestilence." Crowley said quickly.

They both froze, staring at him for a moment.

"What do you know about Pestilence?" Dean fired back.

"I know how to get him. That's got your interest, doesn't it?" Crowley said smugly.

Sam scoffed again, turning to Dean to see a contemplative look on his face.

"Are you actually listening to this?" he demanded.

"Sam…" Dean sighed.

"Are you friggin' nuts?!"

"Shut up for a second, Sam!" Dean snapped, trying to think.

"Shut up, the both of you!" Crowley bellowed, gaining their attention again. "Look... I swear... I thought the colt would work. It's an honest mistake. It's all part of the learning process. But nothing's changed. I still want the devil dead. Well...one thing's changed. Now the devil knows that I want him dead. Which, by the way, makes me the most buggered son in all of creation."

"Holy crap. We don't care." Dean said, rolling his eyes.

"They burnt down my house! They ate my tailor!" the demon yelled as if it was the most tragic thing he'd ever been through.

"Two months under a rock, like a bloody salamander! Every demon on hell and earth's got his eyes out for me! And yet... here I am... last place I should be! In the road, talking to Sam and Dean Winchester, under a friggin' spotlight!" he gestured to a streetlight above them that shattered into pieces.

"So come with me. Please. Do you want the horsemen rings or not?" they stared at him, shocked. "Yes, I know all about that. Shall we?"

* * *

"They're basically the same as your other powers. Just point and shoot." Balthazar said.

"That's it? Point and shoot? That's all you have for me?" she asked, her hands falling as she raised an eyebrow.

"Well it's not exactly rocket science, darling. Oh and you'll be stronger, physically. So try not to break your Winchester during sex." he said with a smirk.

"Oh I'm starting to see the family resemblance." She snapped as he reminded her of Gabriel.

"It will take a while for you to get used to these added powers so don't go confronting Lucifer or Michael. And do not think that you can kill either of them yourself. If Gabriel could not defeat Lucifer after having this strength for a few millenia, you cannot defeat him after having them for a week. Stick with the Horsemen's rings plan, it is the best you have." Balthazar warned her.

"What if it doesn't work?" she asked.

"Don't think like that lovely, you're too bloody young to have such a pessimistic attitude about life." the angel said.

"You're not too bad." She commented, smiling as she was shocked to find another angel she might actually like.

"And you're just as charming as I thought you would be. Gabriel told me stories." Balthazar replied.

"Did he tell everyone stories?" Elena sighed, shaking her head.

"Just like a proud papa." The angel said with a smirk.

Elena looked over at him and sighed at his words, knowing that they were meant to be teasing.

"I miss him." she sighed.

Balthazar grew serious and nodded.

"As do I." he admitted.

* * *

"Here we are." Crowley sighed as they entered a dark, dusty, abandoned cabin. "My life on the lam. How the mighty have fallen. Single-pane glass, Used contraception in the fireplace. The water damage alone…"

The demon snapped his fingers and the fireplace lit up with a fire.

"My heart's bleeding for you. Now, how do you know about the rings?" Dean demanded, him and Sam standing before Crowley with narrowed eyes.

"Well, now... I've been keeping a close eye on you lot." He answered.

"We got hex bags. We're hidden from demons." Sam said accusingly.

"All but one. That night you broke into my house, our first date, my valet hid a tracking device in your car. A magical coin that easily trumps your little bags o' bones. It allows me to hear things, too… and, my, the things I've heard." Crowley chuckled as his eyes fell on Dean.

Sam looked at his brother.

"It was just a few times… we felt kinky." He shrugged.

"So you want to cram the devil back in the box? Cunning scheme. I want in." Crowley said, interrupting them as Sam looked at Dean with a disgusted look, wondering how many times he'd sat where they had sex.

"You said you could get us Pestilence." Dean said, staring at him.

"Well, now... I don't know where Pestilence is... per se. But I do know the demon who does. He's what you might call the horsemen's stable boy. He handles their itineraries, their personal needs. He's who you want -believe me. He'll tell us where Sneezy's at." Crowly informed them.

"Well, how do we get him to spill? Rip out his toenails?" Dean asked, willing to throw a bitchfit if another supernatural being asked him to torture someone.

"No. Nuts at his pay grade don't crack. We bring him here, then I sell him." the demon said smoothly.

"Sell him?" Sam asked skeptically.

"Please. I've sold sin to saints for centuries. Think I can't close one little demon?" Crowley scoffed.

"All right, so where's this demon of yours?" Dean demanded, interrupting him and Sam from fighting again.

"He works in the pharmaceutical company that just so happens to be fighting to put a cure out for this Swine flu business. Coincidence? I don't think so either." Crowley said.

"Why are we even listening to him, Dean? This is totally insane." Sam demanded as they got weapons ready.

"I don't disagree." Dean replied dryly, looking around worredly as he still wondered where Elena was.

"One big happy family, are we, then? Fantastic." Crowley said, entering the room.

"You ready to go?" Dean asked.

"Yes. Yes. I am. Sam, keep the home fires burning." he said, turning to walk out.

"What are you talking about?" Sam demanded.

"Sam's not coming." The demon said, turning back.

"And why the hell not?" the younger brother offered.

Crowley's eyes narrowed as he walked back to him.

"Because I don't like you... I don't trust you! And, oh, yes, you keep trying to kill me!" he yelled, glaring up at Sam.

"There's no damn way. This isn't gonna happen!" Sam snapped, looking back at Dean for confirmation, who was remaining silent.

"I'm not asking you, am I? 'cause you're not invited. I'm asking you." Crowley said, backing towards the doorway again as he pointed at Dean. "What's it gonna be?"

Dean didn't say anything, his eyes flashing to Sam. The demon scoffed, shaking his head.

"Gentlemen... enjoy your last few sunsets." He said, turning to walk out.

"Wait. I'll go." Dean said, stopping him.

Sam stard at him incredulously.

"What can I say? I believe the guy." He sighed.

* * *

Elena looked around as they appeared in front of a broken down old house.

"We're back on earth now. Your boys should be in there. Remember, turn doorknobs gently. If all else fails, just use your mind to do basic things so that you don't break the world. It's going to be a while before you get used to this level of strength. Oh, and your emotions might be a little stronger than before." Balthazar warned her.

She turned to him with a smile.

"Thank you, for helping me. I know you didn't have to." She said.

"Are you kidding me? And risk getting my ass kicked by Gabriel when he comes back?" Balthazar shook his head, scoffing.

Her face turned serious.

"What? You think he's coming back?" she asked.

"I think that tricky bastard always has another trick up his sleeve." The angel said, smirking.

She smiled and nodded.

"I suppose so." she agreed.

Balthazar sighed and looked around before looking back at her.

"Well I obviously have to leave you better than I found you or what kind of angel would I be?" he shrugged.

"You've already helped me, Balthazar." She reminded him.

"Not enough." he said, shaking his head before looking at her outfit.

She knew what he was going to do.

"Don't…" it was too late and she was wearing a different outfit.

"Now, that's better. Oh and, Happy Birthday. Call it my present to you." He said, smirking.

Elena looked at him with surprise.

"Birthday?" she asked, surprised.

"It's midnight." He said, gesturing around.

She stared at him blankly.

"Oh darling, you forgot your own birthday. That's… a bit sad." He said with a wink before disappearing.

* * *

Sam was sitting on the couch looking around sourly as he drank and talked to Bobby on the phone.

"And then Dean just walks..." he scoffed, taking a gulp. "… right out the door with Crowley."

"Well, look, Sam, I got no love for demons, and, yeah, this whole thing is crazy, but... I don't know. After a year of chasing up zilch, maybe it's time to go crazy." Bobby said over the phone.

"Yeah, maybe." He sighed heavily. "Hey, Bobby?"

"Yeah?" the older man said.

"Uh... remember that time you were possessed?" Sam said.

"Yeah. Rings a bell." He said unhappily.

"When Meg told you to kill Dean, you didn't. You took your body back." he reminded him.

"Just long enough to shank myself, yeah." Bobby agreed.

"Well, how'd you do it? I mean, how'd you take back the wheel?"

"Why are you asking, Sam?" Bobby asked suspiciously.

SAm took a swig from his bottle before speaking again.

"Say we can open the cage. Great. But then what? W-we just lead the devil to the edge and get him to jump in?" Sam asked.

"You got me." Bobby replied.

"What if you guys lead the devil to the edge and I jump in?" he suggested.

"Sam…" Bobby began, not liking what he was suggesting one bit.

"It'd be just like when you turned the knife around on yourself. One action… just one leap."

"Are you idjits trying to kill me?!" Bobby yelled.

"Bobby…" Sam sighed.

"We just got done talking your brother off the ledge, and now you're lining up to say yes?" he demanded.

"It's not like that. I'm not gonna do it. Not unless we all agree. But I think we got to look at our options." Sam said.

"This isn't an option, Sam." Bobby snapped.

'Why not?" Sam asked defiantly.

"You can't do it. What I did was a million-to-one, and that was some pissant demon I was brain-wrestling. You're talking about taking back control from Satan himself." The other man reminded him.

"Yeah. Yeah, I am." Sam agreed.

"Kid... it's called possession for a reason. You, of all people, ought to know." Bobby sighed and Sam could tell that he was frustrated, angry, and hurt at the same time.

"I'm strong enough." he argued.

"You ain't. He's gonna find every chink in your armor, Sam, and use it against you… your fear, your grief, your anger. And let's face it, you're not exactly Mr. Anger management. How are you gonna control the devil when you can't control yourself?" Bobby questioned.

At that moment, a crash sounded at the front of the house.

"Hey Bobby, I have to go." he said.

"You all right, boy?" the other man asked.

"I'll let you know in a second." Sam said before hanging up.

He drew his gun slowly and walked into the entryway to find a very guilty looking Elena standing in the shards that used to be the front door.

"Oops." She said, smiling nervously.

* * *

"Demons?" Dean asked, looking through binoculars at the lobby of the Niveus Pharmaceuticals building.

"Nah. Human shields. The demons are up top... twelfth floor." Crowley answered from the passenger seat.

"All right, then. We'll have to find a way in through the back." Dean said.

"You Winchesters make everything so complicated." Crowley scoffed before disappearing.

"Aw, crap." Dean grumbled, turning back towards the building in time to see the demon appear in the lobby and slit the security guard's throat.

"Oh, crap. Crap!" he struggled with his seatbelt before jumping out of the Impala.

"Shit! Shit!" he cursed, running up to the building.

He knocked on the door.

"Door's open!" Crowley yelled.

He walked inside and up to the demon, his arms wide in a questioning stance as he looked down at the two dead bodies of the guards.

"What?" Crowley asked innocently.

"You killed them?" he demanded.

"We're on a tight schedule." He shrugged.

Dean glared him.

"Come on. Now you're squeamish? Please."

He stepped forward and grabbed Dean's sleeve, steering him towards the elevator. When he stepped inside, Crowley leaned in and pushed the twelfth floor before stepping back out.

"Go get 'em, tiger." He said encouragingly.

"Wh…" Dean stopped the doors from closing. "You're not coming?

"Oh, no. It's not safe up there. There's demons." Crowley said as if it was obvious.

"Yeah, I get that." he said, trying to get across that he could use a little backup.

"Look, just do what I told you, and try to be convincing. It'll work like a charm. Trust me." Crowley said, pushing him backwards to let the doors close.

* * *

"He went? With Crowley?" Elena said, looking at Sam.

"Yeah, apparently getting this demon was more important than not trusting Crowley." Sam sighed.

She bit her lip, afraid to admit to Sam that she would have backed Dean up in that situation.

"I should get there." she said, standing up.

"Wait, take me." Sam said, jumping up as well.

She looked back at him with a guilty look.

"Sam…" she sighed.

"Elena please. I hate being left behind." He said desperately.

"I'm only going to make sure that Dean is okay. With Crowley with him, I can't be sure. Please just stay here so that I know at least one of you is safe." She said pleadingly.

He looked at her with a heartbreaking expression. She sighed, hating to pull this card.

"My birthday is September 15th." She said.

Sam stared at her, confused.

"Look at your phone." Elena urged him.

He looked down at it and sighed when he saw the date.

"I'm nineteen years old. So please, as a birthday present to me, stay here and safe for just a few minutes. I'll make sure that everything goes smoothly with Crowley." She assured him.

"That's mean." He muttered.

"I know it is." She sighed, walking up and kissing his cheek.

"What happened when you were gone? Why did you decimate the door?" he asked.

"It wasn't exactly on purpose. I'll explain when I have you and Dean together." She said, backing away to disappear.

"And the outfit?" he asked, raising an eyebrow at it.

She rolled her eyes.

"Apparently angels enjoy making me their Barbie doll." Elena said, grinning at him before disappearing.

* * *

Just as he finished sinking the knife into the final demon he found, the doors of the office he was standing in front of creaked open to reveal a man sitting at desk. He assumed it was his guy by the plaque on his desk that read 'Tyson Brady', the name that Crowley gave to him with the plan.

"Dean Winchester. What, no appointment?" he asked, sitting back casually.

"Kind of an 11th-hour thing, you know?" he shrugged.

"Well, then, you're just on time. Have a seat." Brady said, turning a chair for him to sit in as he walked inside.

"How's your brother?" Dean didn't answer and there were a few moments of silence as they sat there. "Well, down to business, then. What can I do for you?"

"Actually, it's about what I can do for you." Dean said.

"Really?" the demon asked, looking surprised.

"Me and Sam dropped two of your jockeys. I think you know that." he said.

'Yes. I got the memo." Brady nodded.

"Well, we kept their, uh, secret power rings." Dean informed him.

"Mm."

"Which is why I'm here. I heard some folks saying that you wanted them back and you were willing to pay." He shrugged.

"Hmm. Where are they?" Brady asked.

"Not here. But you want them, you'll come with me, nice and civil. We'll get out of your little batcave here, and we'll discuss a transaction." Dean offered.

"Who says I want them?" Brady asked.

"What?" he said, not expecting that answer.

"Who... says... I want them?" the demon asked again.

"You know... folks." Dean said, skirting around the answer.

"See..." Brady cleared his throat as he stood. "… War and famine, even if I could cram the rings back on their bony fingers, I doubt it would do much good. They're withered husks right now… fetal position on the floor. All thanks to you. So I don't want the rings. What I want is retribution. And I'm gonna rip it right out of your ass!" Brady yelled.

* * *

Elena looked around as she walked into the lobby of the pharmaceutical company. There were dead bodies at the security guard desk. Her heels clicked on the floor as she walked. Crowley suddenly appeared in front of her.

"Well look who is here. I was wondering where you were." He said.

"I'm here for Dean." She said simply.

"I'm sure you are, darling. But he's helping me out with something." He said simply.

She felt a twinge within her mind and looked at the elevator before walking to it. Crowley stopped her by stepping in front of it.

"Trust me, he needs to lead this demon down here." He said, looking genuine.

"If I get one little hint that he's been killed, I'll roast you alive." She threatened, surprised that the words were coming out of her mouth.

"I believe you." the demon nodded before pulling her into the shadows where he was hiding before.

* * *

Dean groaned as Brady threw him through the doors of the office.

This..." Brady chuckled. "...is so good."

He reared back and kicked Dean as he approached.

"Therapeutic, for sure. You know, Dean, I really owe you one, buddy, 'cause I feel..." Brady continued, as Dean grunted in pain.

He continued kicking him in the ribs, accenting each word with a kick.

"… so… much... better!

* * *

Elena sighed and winced as she felt that Dean was in pain, wondering why she was going along with the demon's plan.

"I can practically smell something different with you. Did you get work done?" Crowley asked, smirking next to her.

She simply turned to stare at him.

"I'm nineteen today, if that counts for anything." She said, not knowing why she was telling a demon that it was her birthday.

"Oh Happy Birthday." Crowley said.

"Thanks." She nodded, forgetting herself and smiling at him.

They both looked up as the elevator dinged and Dean came stumbling out, looking worse for wear. Elena made to dart forward but Crowley stopped her, his eyes telling her to go along with the plan they set up. She sighed and snuck around the pillars.

A figure stepped out from the elevator and hit Dean over the head, causing him to collapse to the ground. Then he bent over him.

"Good meeting, Dean. You know, I'm excited." He said.

Elena approached slowly, her heels clicking to distract him as her shadow fell over him. He looked up at her slowly with his face set in a smug look. Dean also looked back at her and looked relieved. She didn't have to see this guy's black eyes to know that he was a demon. It was something about his aura that told her everything.

"Hi." She said, waving her fingers at him.

She reared back and her foot connected with his chin, causing his head to snap back as he stumbled backwards. Crowley leapt on him from behind, dropping a sack covered in a devil's trap over his head. Then he proceeded to bash in his head until he collapsed to the ground unable to move or fight him.

"Evening, Uncle." He said, breathing heavily.

"What the hell was that?" Dean demanded as Elena helped him up to a standing position.

She could tell by the way he was breathing that a few of his ribs were broken.

"That was perfect." Crowley complimented him.

"Perfect? He didn't want the rings. He wanted me." Dean snapped, leaning on her for support as they stared at the demon.

"Imagine the surprise on your face." the demon said, looking happy as can be.

"What?" Dean said.

"Your ignorance and misinformation… I mean, completely authentic. You can't fake that." They both glared at him for misleading Dean. "What? It went like clockwork." He shrugged.

"Not for me, you son of a bitch!" Dean yelled.

"That's what you get… working with a demon." Crowley replied smartly.

* * *

Dean insisted on driving as Elena leaned over the seat and pressed her hands to his torso, healing him. Crowley was sitting in the back doing something to Brady.

"Where were you?" he asked in a low voice.

"Heaven." She replied softly, looking up at him.

He looked over at her warily.

"Nothing bad. Gabriel had a friend of his come tell me a few things. I'll tell you and Sam later." She said, glancing back at Crowley.

"Oh don't stop on account of me." the demon said.

They both looked to see him carving a sigil into Brady's torso.

"Hey, hot stuff, watch the upholstery!" Dean exclaimed, feeling better.

"Up yours, mate. This bit of carving will tie our friend here down. No zapping off, no smoking out. Locked in the meat suit. An important piece of our bargaining strategy. Now, up here, we don't want I-50. Take 93 north." He instructed Dean.

They exchanged a look, confused.

"What are you talking about?" Elena asked.

"Look, we can't take this guy back to your brother." Crowley said.

"Why the hell not?" Dean demanded, frustrated when he didn't answer. "Crowley!"

"They got history, all right?" he said simply.

Dean suddenly screeched to a halt, forcing Elena to brace herself on the dashboard.

"You want to go anywhere, you start talking. What history?" he demanded as they looked back at him.

Crowley stared between them before sighing exasperatedly.

* * *

Sam looked up from the bed he was sitting on when he heard the Impala approaching. He quickly ran to the front room to see Crowley studying the destroyed from door with interest.

"Where are Dean and Elena?" he demanded.

The demon turned and scowled at him.

"Now... for the record, I'm against this. Negotiating a high-level defection… it's very delicate business." He informed Sam, walking up to him.

"What are you talking about?" Sam asked, not knowing what he was talking about.

"I begged Dean and Elena not to come back. We should be miles away... from you. He replied with a colorful rejoinder about my corn chute." Crowley said.

Sam scoffed, imagining what Dean could have said to the powerful demon.

"So, go ahead. Go… ruin our last best hope. It's only the end of the world." He sighed, gesturing to the room where Dean and Elena took the other demon.

He entered to see Dean tying a figure up that had a burlap hood on to a chair in the middle of a devil's trap. Elena was standing to the side watching with concern. They both looked up at him as he entered, similar hesitant looks on their faces.

"Sam…" Dean began.

"What's going on, Dean?" Sam asked, looking at the figure.

"I need you to stay on mission, okay? Focused." Dean said, walking to him with a desperate look on his face.

"I don't understand. What's all this about?" Sam asked.

"I'm doing this 'cause I trust you." Dean reminded him.

"Trust me to what?" Sam said, getting frustrated.

They all looked at the figure as he stirred underneath the hood.

"Sam?" he paused, clearing his throat. "Sam, is that you?"

Dean looked at Elena, nodding. She approached the figure and pulled the hood off. Sam stared at the figure, shocked.

"Brady?" he breathed.

The demon chuckled at him, blood caked in his hair and running down his face.

"Brady hasn't been Brady in years. Not since, oh.. middle of our sophomore year?" Brady said, smirking.

"What?" Sam said, looking stunned.

"That's right. You had a devil on your shoulder even back then. All right, now, let it all sink in."

The younger Winchester's face suddenly turned to fury.

"You son of a bitch. You son of a bitch!" he yelled, making to approach him.

Dean caught him and held him back.

"You got me back together with Jess when we broke up!" he yelled.

"Ding, ding! I think he's got it!" Brady said, laughing.

Sam struggled to push past Dean and Elena was ready in case he did make it past.

"Damn it, Sam!" he yelled.

"I'm gonna kill you!" Sam roared.

Dean finally suceeded in pushing him out of the room and Elena following, glaring back at the demon as she did so. He winked at her just before she walked out.

"Get out of my way!" Sam growled, still struggling with Dean.

"No." Dean snapped.

"Get out of my way, Dean."

"There is only one way to win, and it ain't by killing that thing in there." he said, pushing Sam away.

"Well...sounds like you got him nice and fluffed. Thanks so much." Crowley commented as he past them and into the room.

Dean nodded back at her to follow him just to make sure he didn't do anything they didn't agree with.

"Listen to me. We need Pestilence to get at the Devil, and we need Brady to get to Pestilence." Dean said.

"Why? Because Crowley said so? Because we trust him now? Like I trusted Ruby? Or like I trusted Brady back at school?" Sam shouted.

That's the last she heard before she walked in the room with Crowley. The demon simply glanced back up at her before sitting on a chair backwards in front of Brady. She leaned against the wall and Brady glanced over at her.

"Looks like we've all got an angel as a babysitter." He quipped.

"Not an angel, jackass." She snapped.

"You sure smell like one, bitch." Brady shot back.

"Look... do the math yourself." Crowley said, interrupting their back and forth. "If Lucifer wins, he'll turn this place into his kingdom. When the morningstar cleans house, we all get the mop."

"He created us. Why would he destroy us? That makes no sense." The other demon scoffed.

"Look at who… at what he is. Then take a look at what we are." He said simply.

"Maybe you should be a little less worried about our necks and be a little more worried about yours." Brady said, smirking at him.

"Has crossed my mind. That's not really the point." Crowley shrugged.

Elena simply remained quiet as they spoke.

"Actually, Crowley, that is the point. No one will know greater torment than you. Lucifer is never gonna let you die. As for me, I know the score. I'm dead, whether I tell you anything or not. So I think I'll die on the winning side, thanks." He said.

Crowley stared at him for a moment.

"Good talk. Cheers." He said, standing.

Elena followed him out of the room.

"Are you going to be tailing me like this forever?" he asked.

"As long as you're around us and I don't trust you, yeah." Elena replied.

"Well, I suppose my babysitter could be worse looking." The demon shrugged.

"Well, how'd it go? He buy your girl scout cookies?" Dean asked as they entered.

Elena collapsed on the couch next to him, her legs crossed at the ankles on the table in front of them just next to his own crossed legs.

"Not yet." Crowley said, looking around with a furrowed brow. "Where's your moose?"

Elena fought back a smile at his name for Sam but Dean didn't react.

"He's cooling off." Dean said, taking a sip of whiskey.

"All right, then. Get bent." He said, turning to walk off.

"You going somewhere?" Elena asked, raising an eyebrow at him.

"Well, he won't budge, so now I go stick my neck out." the demon sighed.

"What are you gonna do?" Dean questioned.

"Exactly the kind of desperate swashbuckle I've been trying to avoid. Now I go kick open a hive of demons. This whole bloody ring business better work." Crowley snapped before disappearing.

Dean turned to her again.

"So…?" he said.

"Gabriel had an angel waiting to tell me what the deal was. The feeling that I was having every night was that angel calling me to heaven. He basically told me that… Gabriel's grace flowed into me when he died. I have the power of an archangel without actually being an angel… apparently." She said.

He stared at her.

"What does that even mean?" he asked.

"I don't know. I mean, he said that I'm not immortal. I'm still aging. Which is a good thing because today is my birthday and it would be kind of crappy if I was living through it knowing that it didn't even matter."

"Wait… what?" Dean said.

"Hmm?" she asked.

"Your birthday?" he asked.

"Yeah, it's not a big deal." She shrugged.

He squinted at her.

"If you were still in Mystic Falls would it be a big deal?" he asked.

She sighed and laid her head on his shoulder.

"If I were still in Mystic Falls, a lot of things would be a big deal that aren't anymore. This life puts things into perspective Dean, I'm sure you know that. You asked me not to make a big deal of your birthday and so did Sam. Can I have the same request?" she asked.

He reached up and stroked her hair.

"Of course." He said before picking her head up.

"But you at least get a birthday kiss."

Elena smiled and shrugged.

"I suppose I'm all right with that." she said.

Dean grinned and leaned in, pressing his lips to hers softly. They broke apart just as Sam entered the room again.

"Where's Crowley?" he asked, glancing around.

"He went to 'stick his neck out'." Dean said.

Sam nodded and leaned against the wall.

"I'm gonna go to the bathroom, splash some water on my face. I don't feel like I'm at my one hundred percent after letting that demon kick my ass." Dean sighed, standing.

Elena watched Sam warily as his eyes followed Dean's. He pushed off of the wall and walked back as Dean went into the bathroom. When she heard the door slam closed and a chair drag in front of it, she ran out to see that Sam had blocked the door.

"Sam? Come on, Sam! Don't do this! Sam, come on! Hey! Open the door! Open the door!" Dean yelled as he banged on the door.

He turned to her with a pleading expression.

"Please." He said.

"I can't let you kill him, Sam. We need him." she said, shaking her head.

"I just want to ask him. Please, Elena. I deserve answers and Dean won't let me anywhere near him." Sam said.

Elena looked at the bathroom warily before nodding. She followed him into the room to make sure that he did nothing to really harm the demon.

"Well, here we go. We doing last words or no?" the demon said, smirking over at Sam.

"Sophomore year, huh?" he asked, circling the chair.

"Brady, here, he was a good kid. Straight arrow. I mean, your best friend, really. Perfect point of access." he shrugged.

"Thanksgiving." Sam nodded.

"Yes, sir. Remember when I came back from break all messed up? Dropped out of pre-med, the drugs, the bitches? That was the new Brady. That was me. Remember how much time you spent trying to get me back on the right track? You really were a good friend. But ol' yellow eyes didn't send me back to be your friend. No, we could tell we were starting to lose you. You were becoming a mild-mannered, worthless sack of piss. Now, come on. We couldn't have that. You were our favorite. So I hooked you back up with a pure, sweet, innocent piece of tail. And then I toasted her on the ceiling." Both Sam and Elena's heads shot up at that. "That's right. Azazel might have put the hit out on Jessica, but, man, I got to have all the fun!"

She saw Sam's hand twitch and spotted the demon-killing knife in his hand.

"Sam…" she began.

Brady's laughing interrupted her.

"You know, she thought we were friends, too. Let me right in. She was baking cookies. She was so surprised... so hurt when I started in on her."

Suddenly Sam flew forward and pressed the knife against his throat.

"Sam!" Elena yelled, ready to attack him.

"Come on! Do it if it'll make you feel better!" Brady encouraged him, obviously trying to get him to kill him.

She watched as he nicked the demon's neck with the knife and then stepped back.

"Do it, Sammy! Do it! Come on! Come on." he said, looking up at Sam.

The younger brother's eyes flashed over to her and he handed the knife over to her.

"Ohhhhh." Brady chuckled before sighing.

Elena made sure that he was following her when they walked out.

Dean was still banging on the door.

"Come on!" he yelled.

"Hey, hey, hey! All right! Wait! I'm gonna open it." Sam said, pulling the chair out and opening the door.

"What happened?" Dean demanded, looking at Elena as he walked out.

"Nothing." Sam said.

"My ass." He snapped, not even waiting for an explanation as he walked to gt a look at the demon himself.

"Dean, I'm fine." Sam said.

"Yeah? And what about Brady?" Dean said.

He walked in to see that he was just fine and he turned to them.

"Sam deserved his answers, Dean. I was making sure that nothing happened. Not like I needed to." She said, gesturing to Sam.

"Like you said..." Sam sighed. "… we need him."

Dean stared at him before nodding. They all looked around as Crowley appeared, walking forward looking a little worse for wear. His suit was ripped in several places and he had blood splattered on his face.

"God. The day I've had." He grumbled, walking to stand in front of Brady. "Good news. You're going to live forever."

"What did you do?" Brady demanded.

"Went over to a demons' nest… had a little massacre. Must be losing my touch, though. Let one of the little toads live. Oops. Also might have given said toad the impression that you left your post last night because you and I are… wait for it… lovers in league against Satan." Crowley chuckled as they exchanged impressd looks.

Brady sighed heavily, also knowing exactly what it meant.

"Hello, darling." Crowley said with a smirk. "So, now death is off the table. Now you get to be on the boss's eternal-torment list with little old me."

"Oh, no, no, no, no. No." Brady said, shaking his head.

"Something else we have in common… apart from our torrid passion, of course, craven self-preservation. So, now, why don't you tell me where Pestilence is at?" he asked.

They were suddenly interrupted by the sound of loud howling.

"Oh, God, Crowley." Brady said, his eyes wide.

"Was that a hellhound?" Dean demanded, causing Elena's blood to run cold.

"I'd say yeah." Crowley nodded.

"Why was that a hellhound?" Elena demanded.

The demon groaned and pulled a coin out of his pocket.

"What's that?" Sam asked.

"Remember I was telling you about my crafty little tracking device?" he said, holding it up.

"What tracking device?" Elena said with narrowed eyes.

"Yeah." Sam said, shaking his head at her as if she didn't want to know.

"Demons planted one on me." he said.

"You're saying a hellhound followed you here?" Sam demanded.

"Well, technically, he followed this." Crowley shrugged.

"Get me out of here. I'll tell you anything you want." Brady said, suddenly panicking.

"Shut up." Sam snapped.

"Okay, well, then we should go." Dean said, gesturing to the door.

"Sorry, boys. No one knows more about the hounds than I. You're long past the point of go." Crowley said, tossing the coin to Dean and disappearing.

"Dammit!" the older brother shouted.

"I told you!" Sam said, bitchface firmly in place.

"Oh, well, good for you." Dean said mockingly, rolling his eyes. "Luckily, we have salt in the kitchen."

Elena handed the demon knife to Sam, a trusting look in her eyes, as she made to follow Dean.

"I'll watch Brady." He said as the howling continued and got closer.

"Watch me? Get me the hell out of here!" Brady yelled.

Elena and Dean ran into the kitchen, spotting the salt. Before he could make it across the kitchen, the window shattered and the table broke under the weight of the hound.

"Holy fuck that thing is ugly!" Elena exclaimed.

"You can see it?" Dean demanded.

"You can't?" she asked as he yanked her out of the room.

He picked up a shotgun and began firing salt rounds at the thing as they backed up.

"Sammy!" Dean yelled as they backed into the room where he and Brady were.

"Salt?" Sam asked.

Elena shook her head as the hellhound walked in, growling.

"Damn it, get me out of here!" Brady yelled, struggling against his binds.

"Shut up!" All three of them yelled at once.

"Great. Just great." The demon ranted.

"Hey!" They looked up to see Crowley standing on the other side of the entryway looking awful proud of himself.

Elena's eyes widened when she saw the much larger hellhound standing beside him practically foaming at the mouth.

"You're back?" Dean asked, eyes wide.

"I'm invested. Currently."

His hellhound barked and they started.

"Stay!" Crowley yelled out the command.

"You can control them?" Dean asked, staring at him.

"Not that one." Crowley pointed to the smaller hellhound that Elena could see. "I brought my own. Mine's bigger."

She watched with a grimace as she patted the large hound's head.

"Sic him, boy!" he suddenl yelled.

They backed away as the hellhounds began to fight each other, blood spattering everywhere. Elena could only imagine how strange it must have been for Dean and Sam, who supposedly couldn't see the hounds. Dean bent over the devil's trap and began scraping it off.

"Go, go go go!" he yelled and they all ran out, congregating at the Impala.

"I'll wager $1,000 my pup wins." Crowley said, chuckling.

* * *

They were standing in an alleyway, Crowley in front of Brady as they all stood a little ways away.

"Yeah. I'm sure Pestilence will be there. Thanks." Brady said, handing Crowley a piece of paper.

He peered down at it before walking back and handing it to Dean.

"What do you think?" Dean asked, taking it.

"It's good." Crowley turned back to Brady. "You got no reason to lie, have you? Like I said before, you're in my boat now."

"You've screwed me… for eternity." The other demon snapped, glaring at him.

"Nah. Won't last that long. Trust me." Crowley said, amused as he knew what was coming.

Dean and Crowley walked a little ways down the alley, leaving Sam and Elena standing side-by-side and glaring at Brady.

"Where are you going?" Brady demanded, not knowing what was going on.

Dean bent down and began to pour a salt line behind them. He stopped, allowing Crowley to step over it.

"I'm going to do you a favor." He said and then looked at Sam and Elena. "I expect we'll be in touch."

Dean finished the salt line as Crowley disappeared and then walked to stand on the other side of Elena, leaving her in the middle of the two brothers.

"What is this?" Brady asked, staring at them as they glared back at him.

"All those angels, all those demons, all those sons of bitches. They just don't get it, do they, Sammy?" Dean said.

"No, I don't think they do, Dean. How about you, Elena?" Sam asked.

"Nope." She said simply.

"You see, Brady... we're the ones you should be afraid of. Especially since we have… wait, what level of strength do you have now, Elena?" Dean asked her to remind him.

"Oh I'm at archangel status, honey." She said sarcastically, feeling strange calling Dean a petname.

Brady scoffed as Sam approached him with the demon-knife. Elena and Dean were two steps behind, watching him with furious eyes. Now that it was all over, and they got the information, they wanted nothing more for this demon to die for what he did to Sam and Jess.

"I bet this is a real moment for you, big boy. Gonna make you feel all better?" Brady taunted Sam.

"It's a start." He replied.

"Gonna make up for all the times that we yanked your chain. Yellow eyes, Ruby, me? But it wasn't all our fault, was it? No, no, no, no. You're the one who trusted us. You're the one who let us into your life, let us whisper in your ear over and over and over again. Ever wonder why that is, Sammy? Ever wonder why we were so in your blind spot? Maybe it's because we got the same stuff in our veins and, deep down, you know you're just like us."

Brady lunged at him but Elena had him pinned against the wall easy with her mind and Sam launched forward, slicing his neck with the blade. He screamed but couldn't move. But it didn't stop him from talking.

"Maybe you hate us so much because you hate what you see every time you look in the mirror. You ever think of that?!" Brady laughed. Maybe the only difference between you and a demon... is your hell is right here."

Elena cocked her head to the side before stepping forward next to Sam.

"That's enough talking." She said, snapping her fingers.

He choked and sputtered, wheezing. Sam didn't give him long to suffer, rearing back and slamming the knife into his heart, twisting it and causing the demon to collapse to the ground as Elena released her hold on him.

"That was an interesting trick. What did you do?" Dean asked as they turned to walk off.

"I was aiming to remove his vocal chords… but I might have accidentally taken his trachea. I can't be sure." Elena said in a deadpan, continuing on down the street with them walking on either side of her.

"Interesting." Dean nodded, taking her hand.

And for the first time that day, Elena was marvelling over how different this birthday was from her last birthday that was complete with a stereotypical high school party.

"Happy Birthday, Elena." the brothers said at the same time as if they were reading her mind.

She turned as she approached the passenger's seat and saw them produce a bouquet of dark red roses and a box of Little Debbie Cosmic Brownies out of the trunk. She grinned, walking back to the trunk.

"You're amazing, both of you." she said, hugging them at the same time.

"Anything for my girl." Dean murmured in her ear.

They both kissed her cheeks and she flushed with happiness.

"Wait a minute, you didn't have time to get these." She said, looking between them.

"You really thought we didn't know that it was your birthday?" Dean said as she took the flowers and brownies from them.

Her smile got even brighter.

"I love you guys." She laughed, kissing Sam on the cheek and then Dean full on the lips.

"Ugh, no cute stuff." Sam said, rolling his eyes as they walked to climb in the car.

* * *

"Yea, I followed up. Nasty omens, but none of it's Death with a capital D. Well, just give me a ring if it turns into anything. And, Rufus... you watch your ass out there." Bobby said as he sat on the other side of the desk before hanging up the phone.

"Chin up. Cavalry's arrived." A voice said.

He turned to see a man in a business suit standing there. He immediately cocked the gun that was on his lap.

"Charming. That won't work on me. Name's Crowley. Maybe you've..."

"You're Crowley?" Bobby demanded.

"In the flesh… of a moderately successful Literary Agent out of New York." He said, looking down at his body and suit.

Bobby didn't hesitate another moment before shooting him. Crowley yelled out, looking at his shoulder where the bullet pierced him.

"I see you have heard of me. I liked this suit!" he yelled, reminded, once again, that his tailor wasn't around to fix it.

"What are you doing here?" Bobby questioned.

"Looking out for Crowley." He said.

"Meaning...?"

"The boys are on to ring number 3, but we still need number 4. I'm here to help." He said.

"You know where Death is?" Bobby asked.

"No. Haven't the foggiest."

He pulled out a shotgun and aimed it at him.

"Well, then get the hell off my property before I blast you so full of rock salt, you crap margaritas." The hunter threatened.

"That's a mite unfriendly, seeing as I could be getting you Death's location in about the time it'd take you to reload." Crowley offered, stepping forward.

"You're just gonna chat some demons up and hope they don't recognize you?" Bobby demanded.

"God, no. That could get me killed. But there is this little spell that I know." The demon said.

"That so?"

"Results are 100% guaranteed." He nodded.

"Okay. Then why are you snake-oiling me?" Bobby growled.

"Well, it's a little bit... embarrassing. There's this... technicality." Crowley shrugged.

"Uh-huh." He said, knowing exactly where this was going.

"I need a little something to get the magic going." He explained.

"And what's that?" Bobby said, tired of this conversation.

"You make a wish. I can give you anything you want, mate - Up to and including Death's coordinates. All I need is..."

"My soul." He interrupted.

"I've done more with less. Let's just say when they're getting their Grammys, they shouldn't all be thanking God. It's worth it, Bobby. Think." Crowley encouraged the hunter.

"Okay. Here's my counter."

He shot off the gun and Crowley flew back, slamming into the cupboards of the kitchen.

"Ow! Bloody hell! Feisty!" He exclaimed.

"Get out." Bobby growled.

"I'll give it right back." Crowley informed him, standing up and walking into the study.

"You think I'm a natural-born idjit?" Bobby snapped.

"Quite the contrary. Look, you're right to be suspicious. But I'm your ally. Enemy of my enemy and all that. I need the devil back in his stock. In fact, my delicate ass depends on it. I promise you… temporary loan. I'll give it... right... back." Crowley said, trying to sound convincing.

"Ahem." They both turned to see Elena sitting on the couch, her legs crossed and her hand folded on her knees that were pressed together.

"Funny thing. These new little… instincts… I can keep tabs on anyone I want." She said, standing up and walking to Bobby.

She placed a hand on his shoulder.

"That includes this fine fellow right here."

Crowley stared at her, a spark of defiance in his eyes as he took her in.

"So how about you repeat that offer of yours to me. And… um… no running." She said, pointing to the ceiling where he was caught under a devil's trap.

The demon rolled his eyes and looked back at her, unamused.

"Start talking."

* * *

**Author's Note: I hope you liked it! Please review! All of the answers to your question are below and I even threw some spoilers for the next part below those! **

**Answers:**

**To slayer diaries: I will not have Klaus helping Elena with the apocalypse in this part BUT… he will help her with something major in the next part of the story. **

**To the guest reviewer: You will just have to wait and see on the Sam thing since it's only a few chapters away because I don't want to give that away quite yet. But I can tell you that, no matter what happens at the end of this part of the story, this will not be the last we see of Lucifer. He will be coming back in the future. So there is a potential for a lot of new scenes to happen with him and Elena that I haven't quite planned out yet. But I can tell you that he will in no way ever lose interest with Elena. Not just because she's powerful but because he's never really met anyone quite like her.**

**To chiwi: I might quite possibly be making Sam go to hell. Just kidding, yes I probably am. Just because I want to write something with Dean and Elena that can't happen unless he is gone. So there you have it. That actually answers the above reviewer's question sort of.**

**To diehardromantic: Yes we are going to hear from the Originals again. Probably not in this part but in the next part we are. More than we have so far, actually.**

**To CherrySin: Someone is going to make a deal with Crowley and Bobby is going to be out of the wheelchair in the next chapter. I'm not going to say if those are connected or not. **

**To thestralboggart: Of course I'm doing the French Mistake episode!**

**To MrsMaeveSalvatoreMikaelson: Elena has been with them for a little less than a year. I know that it's really supposed to be two years in the Supernatural universe but I squished it together. You'll see something that marks it in either this chapter or the next chapter.**

**Spoilers (turn back now if you don't want to see them)**

**Just wanted to tell you about a few things to look forward to in the next part.**

**1. Since I didn't have it in this part of the story, and I'm so sorry about that, I am going to have a chapter (or two) where the Originals are working on a case with Elena/Dean/Sam. It will happen, I promise!**

**2. I am going to try to list out my music selections more in the next part. I'm sorry I haven't been consistently doing that.**

**3. Jo is going to have a much bigger part in Dean and mostly Elena's life in the next part. And she's going to meet the Mystic Falls bunch as well.**

**4. There is going to be a chapter (completely made up by me) with a de-aging spell. I'm not going to tell you who is going to be younger but I will say that it will be hilarious.**

**5. There is going to be an alternate universe episode (once again, competely made up by me) in which either Dean, Elena, or Sam get to see what would have happened if things went differently with Lucifer and the apocalypse.**

**6. Gabriel does come back! Yay! And Lucifer too. And Crowley. And Balthazar.**

**7. The beginning of the next part is going to have NOTHING to do with hunting. In fact, it's going to start out in Mystic Falls and remain there for a few chapters afterward.**

**8. The full force of the 'Petrova charm' is going to be released at one point and create a case for the trio (that might even involve a certain other Petrova). **

**9. If you want any other spoilers, just tell me in your reviews. I'll answer them to the best of my ability without completely spoiling the entire storyline.**


	28. Chapter 28

**Disclaimer: I do not own TVD or Supernatural**

**Thanks to RHatch89, xxPaige23xx, JMHUW, diehardromantic, MrsMaeveSalvatoreMikaelson, chiwi, Dark-Supernatural-Angel, Slytherin Cat, schoch26, Dark Alana, Nyssandria, CherrySin, IgnitingFireworks, slayerdiaries, DrawingMyHeartOut, and the guest for reviewing!**

**To the guest, there are two more chapters after this one.**

**To Dark-Supernatural-Angel, I just have Sebastian portraying Balthazar but not Mikael in this.**

**A few things:**

**1. Sorry this isn't as long as usual.**

**2. Elena's outfits are on my profile.**

**3. The first scene with italics is a memory. The second scene with them is a dream.**

**4. Enjoy!**

* * *

Elena stood next to Bobby as they stared at Crowley.

"Is this absolutely necessary?" he asked, pointing up at the ceiling that held the devil's trap.

"You tried to get Bobby to sell you his soul! So yes!" she shot back.

The demon sighed and stared at her.

"It's called getting what I want, darling. I make deals." He said.

"Well not while I'm around. Not with the people I care about." Elena said.

"And what is it you want? It can't just be my soul. It's not worth that much to you, demon or otherwise." Bobby said.

"I said temporary loan for a reason. I need protection." Crowley informed them.

"Protection?" Elena questioned.

"I'm not a fool. I see how this goes if you do end up stopping the apocalypse. I'm just another demon that you used to get your way. Well I have feelings and I like to live. So I don't want you three stabbing me in the back once you get rid of Lucifer. So yeah, I need protection." He said simply.

"And you were going to use Bobby's soul as collateral for protection. If we knew that you owned his soul, we would have never killed you." Elena realized.

"Good for you, darling, you figured it out." the demon said.

She stared at him.

"Well I'm going to make a deal with you for Death's location all right. But the only thing you'll get out of it is out of that devil's trap." She said, her arms crossed over her chest as she walked forward.

Crowley stared back at her, looking surprised.

"And are you going to make that deal in the next five… four seconds?" he asked.

"What do you…" she realized what he meant when she heard the sound of the Impala pulling up to the house.

"Dammit!" she cursed.

"Take him to the barn, quick. There's a devil's trap at the door." Bobby said.

Elena stared at Crowley hesitantly before walking forward into the devil's trap and grabbing his arm.

"Try anything and I'll burn your eyes out." she threatened before they disappeared.

They reappeared in the barn directly under the devil's trap. Elena pushed away from him and out of the circle.

"Don't I get a coloring book?" he asked, smirking at her.

"Stay quiet and do not try to escape." She warned before disappearing again.

* * *

She made it back into the house just before Dean and Sam bursted through the doors.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Dean demanded as he walked straight in.

At first Elena thought he was talking to her but Sam was following with an uneasy expression.

"Dean…" Sam sighed.

"No, don't 'Dean' me. I mean, you…" he scoffed. "… you have had some stupid ideas in the past, But this…"

He turned to look at Bobby and Elena, focusing mostly on Bobby.

"Did you know about this?" He demanded.

"What?" Bobby said.

Elena Dean looked between them questioningly, very confused about what she missed.

"About Sam's genius plan to cram the devil down his throat." Dean snapped.

"What?" Elena demanded, turning to face Bobby after giving Sam an incredulous look.

Bobby hesitated before nodding.

"Well, thanks for the heads up!" Dean yelled.

"Hey, this ain't about me." the older hunter defended himself, getting the attention back on Sam.

"You can't do this." Dean and Elena said at the same time.

"That's the consensus." Sam said, looking exasperated.

"All right. Awesome. Then, end of discussion." Dean's phone began to ring and he leaned back against the table and he clicked talk.

"This isn't over." He warned Sam. "Hello?"

"Cas?"

All of their heads snapped to him.

"Is he okay?" Sam asked as smile spreaded across Elena's face.

Dean pulled the phone away from his ear and put it on speaker.

"We all thought you were dead. Where the hell are you, man?" He said.

"A hospital." Castiel's gravelly voice said over the phone.

"Are you okay?" Dean asked.

"No."

Elena's smile fell and they stared at the phone.

"You want to elaborate?" Dean said, rolling his eyes.

"I just woke up here. The doctors were fairly surprised. They thought I was brain dead." He explained.

"So, a hospital?" Dean questioned.

"Apparently, after Van Nuys, I suddenly appeared, bloody and unconscious, on a shrimping boat off Delacroix. I'm told it upset the sailors." Cas said.

"Uh, well, I got to tell you, man, you're just in time. We figured out a way to pop Satan's box." Dean said.

"How?" Castiel asked in a pained voice.

"It's a long story, but, look… we're going after Pestilence now. So if you want to zap over here." Dean suggested.

There were a few moments of silence.

"I can't zap anywhere." He sighed.

"What do you mean?" Dean asked.

"You could say my batteries are… are drained."

"What do you mean? You're out of angel mojo?"

"I'm saying that I am thirsty and my head aches. I have a bug bite that itches no matter how much I scratch it, and I'm saying that I'm just incredibly..." he trailed off.

"Human." Dean realized. "Wow. Sorry."

"Well, my point is… I can't go anywhere without money for... an airplane ride. And food. And more pain medication, ideally." He explained.

"All right. Well, look, no worries. Uh, Bobby's here. He'll wire you the cash." Dean said.

"I will?" Bobby asked.

"I can go get him." Elena volunteered.

"No, you can't." Bobby said meaningfully, reminding her of their guest in the barn.

"Why not?" Sam wondered.

"Dean, wait." Cas said.

They all stopped and looked at the phone.

"You said no to Michael. I owe you an apology." Castiel said.

"Cas... it's okay." Dean sighed.

"You are not the burnt and broken shell of a man that I believed you to be." he continued.

Dean stared at the phone strangely.

"Thank you. I appreciate that." he said, staring up at them with a shake of his head.

"You're welcome." Cas said before hanging up.

Dean just looked at them questioningly.

"Why can't Elena go get Cas?" Sam asked.

"I need her help here. You boys may have figured out Pestilence but, in case you forgot, we have one more Horseman to worry about. I can't do all this research on Death myself." Bobby said and Elena knew that he was lying.

"Yeah, I'll stay with him and come if you need me. It's kind of unfair of us, anyways, leaving him here all alone. I can read too, you know." Elena said with a smirk.

"You sure?" Dean said, sounding a little suspicious but not saying a word about it.

"Yeah, I'll sense if you're in trouble so I can just pop right over." She shrugged, smiling.

* * *

They watched from the porch as Dean and Sam packed up the Impala to go.

"Be careful." Bobby said as she walked down the stairs.

She pulled Dean in and kissed him lightly.

"I'll be there if you need me, I promise." She said.

"And then you're going to tell me what's going on with you and Bobby?" he asked with a raised eyebrow, reminding her that he was not fooled by their lies.

Elena glanced back at the wheelchair bound hunter before sighing.

"Yeah, then I'll tell you. Don't worry about it, we're not in danger. We are really working on getting Death's location. Worry about Pestilence. Come back in one piece. That's all we need for now." She said.

"All right. Take care of yourselves too." Dean said, kissing her once more before turning to climb into the Impala.

* * *

"Well… here we are again." Crowley said as they were all three in the study again.

Elena rolled her eyes at him as she combed out her wet hair. She'd taken a few minutes to take a shower and change into more comfortable clothing.

"You said something about a deal." He reminded her.

"Yep, I did. You can give us Death's location and we won't keep you locked up in a devil's trap for the rest of forever." Elena offered, sitting on the desk.

"Forever won't be very long because if you don't let me out of here, I'm not going to tell you Death's location and you will be unable to stop the apocalypse." Crowley fired back.

They glared at each other for a moment.

"What if there could be another deal to make. One that doesn't include a soul?" Bobby suggested, looking between them.

"It's soul or nothing." Crowley said.

"Then it's nothing." Elena snapped.

"You are very bossy." He acknowledged.

"And you're getting on my last nerve."

Bobby sighed.

"I feel like I'm dealing with two pre-schoolers." He informed them, wheeling himself backwards to grab a bottle of whiskey.

"I could use some, mate." Crowley said.

"No alcohol for you until we deal." Elena said.

"And now we're not sharing our toys." Bobby said.

Elena shot him a look that told him he wasn't helping.

"What deal would you suggest that didn't include a soul? I'm not saying I'm interested. Just for argument's sake." Crowley said, putting his hands in the pocket of his suit.

"I already told you my deal." She said.

"Well then how about I make a counter-offer? A… compromise." Bobby said.

She narrowed her eyes at him before gesturing for him to continue.

* * *

"So this is Dr. Evil's lair, huh?" Dean asked as they looked through binoculars at the building.

"It's kind of more depressing than evil." Sam said.

"It's like a four-color brochure for dying young. Of course, to Pestilence, it's probably Dollywood in there." Dean scoffed.

"Great. A whole building full of people. We don't know who's human, who's demon, and who's pestilence. So what do we do?" Sam asked.

Dean thought about it for a moment before an idea occurred to him.

"Hang on."

* * *

Sam waited in the hallway as Dean peeked his head into the security camera footage office.

"Hey. Hi. Uh, I'm looking for my Nana. Uh, her name is Eunice Kennedy." He asked the lone security guard in there.

"Go around front and see the nurse." He said, pointing out of the room.

Dean ignored him, stepping inside and shuttign the door.

"You mind just helping me out, sir? Uh, she's about, uh, about that small…" he gestured with his hand. "… and gray hair, wears diapers.

He launched out and punched the security guard, effectively knocking him out. Sam walked in as he was dragging him to the corner.

"Eunice Kennedy?" the younger brother asked as they sat at the desk to keep an eye on the cameras.

"That's the beauty about improv, Sammy. You never know what's gonna come out of your mouth." Dean said, settling at the desk.

An hour later, Dean was drifting off to sleep as Sam watched.

"So, what are…" he looked over at him and tapped his arm, waking him up. "Hey. What are we even looking for?"

"Well, he's Pestilence, so he probably looks sick." Dean said sleepily, looking at them.

"Everybody looks sick." Sam sighed.

Another hour passed with nothing and Dean was pacing the room to keep his eyes open.

"Hey." Sam said, pointing at the monitor.

Dean walked to it and noticed the distortion on the screen as a doctor walked down the hallway across several monitors and into a patient's room.

"Oh, now we're talking." Dean said.

* * *

"Dr. Green, how was your trip?" the patient asked as the Horseman known as Pestilence walked to her bed disguised as a doctor.

"Oh, very productive. And how are we tonight, Celeste, my favorite patient?" he asked, sitting on the edge of her bed and patting her hand, giving her the West Nile virus as he did so.

Suddenly the door slammed open and one of the nurses walked in.

"Sir... the Winchesters are here. We should go." she said, her eyes turning black as he gave Celeste Malaria.

"Are you kidding me?" he demanded.

"They have a track record with horsemen." She said, nervous at the flash of anger in his eyes.

Pestilence stood, glaring at her.

"You mean my brothers. What they did to my brothers. No. The only reasonable thing to do here is to... take it out of their healthy young asses!" he snapped.

"We're under strict orders not to kill the vessels." The demon said.

"Oh, if Satan wants them so bad, he can glue them back together!" the demon winced, stumbling backwards.

He sighed and gestured her to him.

"Come. Come." He said.

She walked into his arms nervously and she hugged him back.

"Now then, we wait." He said as he turned the ring that was sitting on his finger.

* * *

Sam and Dean were walking down the hallway, Sam carrying Ruby's knife and Dean a shotgun. As they rounded a corner, they saw a doctor and nurse lying on the floor dead. Suddenly their bodies began to weaken.

"Ugh... must be getting close." Sam coughed as blood sputtered out of his mouth.

"You think?" Dean said, holding back heaves that threatened to spill everything out of his stomach.

"Dean?" Sam stumbled over dizzily and tried to help him up but they both fell to the floor.

"Get up." He groaned.

Dean didn't respond, coughing roughly. Sam turned to a door and knew that Pestilence was behind it, stumbling to his feet and walking to it. It flew open before could touch it.

"The doctor will see you now." A demon nurse said.

"Sam. Dean." Pestilence said, grinning as he sat on the patient's bed next to her.

She was already dead. Sam held up the knife before falling to the floor.

"Come right in."

* * *

Elena's head snapped up and she looked over at Bobby.

"They're in danger." She said simply, standing up.

"Elena…" he began.

"Just, look up the information that Crowley gave you. I'll be back with the boys and Pestilence's ring." She said, disappearing.

She reappeared in a hallway looking into a door. Dean and Sam were lying on the floor with a demon nurse and a man dressed as a doctor who she assumed to be Pestilence. She moved to walk in but wavered on her feet.

"Ah, Elena I presume. It's amusing that you have that last little bit of human in you. It's enough to make you sick with the Bubonic Plague, that's for sure. But don't mind me, tend to your boys." Pestilence said as she stumbled.

"Hmm. But they don't look well. It might be the, uh, Scarlet fever. Or, uh, the meningitis. Oh! Or the syphilis. That's no fun." He said as Elena fell to her knees, feeling very sick.

"However you feel right now? It's gonna get so very, very much worse. Questions?" She bent over Sam and Dean, knowing that her body was weakening despite her grace.

Pestilence was much more powerful than she was.

"Disease gets a bad rap, don't you think? For being filthy. Chaotic. Uh, but, really, that just describes people who get sick. Disease itself... Very...Pure...Single-minded. Bacteria have one purpose… divide and conquer."

Elena looked as Dean reached towards Ruby's knife that was clattered on the floor. Pestilence noticed and stepped on his hand, probably cracking a few bones as Dean cried out.

"Stop." Elena gasped, blood tainting her tongue as she coughed.

"That's why, in the end... it always wins. So, you've got to wonder why God pours all his love into something so messy... and weak! It's ridiculous. All I can do is show him he's wrong, one epidemic at a time. Now... on a scale of 1 to 10, how's your pain?" he asked, looking down at them.

Suddenly the door flew open and Elena turned to see Castiel standing there. Seeing him in person, she could see that he was having a hard time.

"Cas." She said, wanting to warn him to leave.

"Cas?" Dean grumbled, turning to look at him.

"How'd you get here?" Pestilence demanded.

"I took a bus. Don't worry, I…" he fell to the floor coughing as well, as susceptible to the diseases as the rest of them.

"Well, look at that. An occupied vessel, but powerless. Oh, that's fascinating. There's not a speck of angel in you, is there?" Pestilence taunted as he bent over him.

Elena slowly stood up, her knife firmly in her grasp. She pushed Pestilence to the bed and slammed his hand down, cutting off his ring and pinky fingers. The Horseman screamed and shoved away from her, collapsing to the floor. The demon pounced on Castiel, who was holding Sam's knife. They collapsed on the ground and she flashed gold as the knife buried in her chest.

"Maybe just a speck." Castiel said, pushing her off of him.

The disease cleared up almost immediately, all of them straightening up.

"It doesn't matter. It's too late." Pestilence said, laughing before he disappeared.

* * *

"Well, it's nice to actually score a home run for once, ain't it? What?" Bobby said as Dean laid the new ring on the desk.

They all sighed as they remained at different places around the study. Dean was sitting backwards on a chair and Sam was sitting normally on a chair. Cas was leaning against a bookshelf with his elbow propped up on his arm. Elena was standing next to him healing him of his various wounds since he couldn't do so himself. She told him that Gabriel died and gave her his grace as his last act. He took it better than she thought he might but, then again, Cas wasn't one to share feelings.

"Last thing Pestilence said… it's too late." Sam brought up.

"He get specific?" Bobby questioned.

"No." Sam said, shaking his head.

"We're just a little freaked out that he might have left a bomb somewhere. So please tell us you have actual good news." Dean said pleadingly.

Elena stepped back when she was done healing Cas and he nodded gratefully at her. Bobby looked up at her questioningly as she perched on the edge of the desk next to where Dean was leaning on it. She nodded back at him and began to thread her fingers through Dean's hair softly.

"Chicago's about to be wiped off the map. Storm of the millennium. Sets off a daisy chain of natural disasters. Three million people are gonna die." Bobby informed them.

Dean lifted his head and looked at him.

"Huh." He said, dropping it again and burying his face in his arms.

"I don't understand your definition of good news." Cas said.

Elena and Dean rolled their eyes at the same time as Sam scoffed.

"Well... Death, the horseman… he's gonna be there. And if we can stop him before he kick-starts this storm, get his ring back…"

"Yeah, you make it sound so easy." Dean scoffed as he nuzzled into Elena's hand.

She fought back a laugh at his actions.

"Hell, I'm just trying to put a spin on it." Bobby shrugged.

"Well... Bobby, how'd you put all this together, anyways?" Sam asked, looking at him.

"I had… we had…" he said, gesturing to Elena as he wanted to drag her under the bus with him. "… you know... help."

"Gee, thanks Bobby." She muttered.

They heard a glass clink and all looked to see Crowley standing in the kitchen.

"Don't be so modest. I barely helped at all. Hello, boys. Pleasure, et cetera." The demon said as he walked in with a glass full of whiskey and leaned on the doorway. "Go ahead. Tell them. There's no shame in it."

"Tell us what?" Sam asked as they all looked between Elena and Bobby with suspicious looks.

"World's gonna end. Seems stupid to get all precious over one little... deal.

"You sold your soul?" Dean demanded, sitting up with a pissed off face.

"No, I didn't. Elena wouldn't let me. We made a deal." Bobby said.

"Well, then take it back!" Dean exclaimed.

"Dean you don't even know the terms." Elena sighed.

"Now!" he said, not caring.

"We can't, boy. Crowley's already delivered on his end. He gave us Death's location." Bobby said.

"And what's your end?" Sam said.

Bobby and Elena exchanged a look.

_"That's all you want? Those are your terms? And you'll give us Death's location?" Elena asked, circling the devil's trap._

_"That's all. I'll let the soul thing slide and everything." He said, smirking at them._

_"A year of protection? That's really all you want from us?" She confirmed._

_"A year of you making sure that your boys don't stab me in the back. That's all I want. And I will hold you to it." Crowley said._

_"And if I renege?" Elena asked._

_"I'll arrange for Bobby here to be killed." He said, pointing at the older hunter._

_Elena looked over at Bobby before looking back at the demon._

_"So basically, I become your guardian? From Sam and Dean?" she asked._

_"Yes." Crowley nodded._

_Her eyebrow raised slightly._

_"I'm not kissing you." she said._

_"I'm not making the deal with you. It's Bobby's life on the line. The deal will be with him." Crowley said._

"Did you kiss him?" Sam asked as she finished explaining it to them.

"Sam!" Dean snapped.

"Just wondering." The younger brother shrugged.

They all turned, looking at Bobby.

"No!" he exclaimed and Elena hid a smile.

"Ahem." They all turned to see Crowley holding out his phone that had a picture of him and Bobby kissing.

"Why'd you take a picture?" Bobby groaned.

"Why do you have to use tongue?" Crowley shrugged, putting it away.

"All right. You know what? I'm sick of this. Get rid of this deal, now. I'm not going to have them being your personal slaves." Dean said, jumping up to get in the demon's face.

"Dean…" Elena sighed.

"I'm sorry. I can't." Crowley shook his head.

"Can't or won't?" the hunter shot back.

"I won't, all right? It's insurance." The demon said.

"What are you talking about?" Dean asked.

"You kill demons. Gigantor over there has a temper issue about it. But you won't kill me... as long as I have that Bobby's life in the deposit box."

"You son of a bitch." Dean growled.

"Just a year, boys. After all this is over and I can walk safely away knowing that you two won't come after me. Do we all understand each other?" he demanded.

Dean stared at him.

"Dean, as far as deals go, it's not a bad one." Elena sighed.

He turned back to her and shook his head.

"We don't make deals with demons." he said.

"Well we just did and you know what? Our world didn't implode? In fact, we got the better end of the deal. We got Death." Elena said.

"Yeah, we'll see about that when Crowley unleashes whatever shitstorm he's planning in that year." He shot back.

"Can we just concentrate on Death right now, please?" she asked.

His mouth snapped closed and he nodded, not even looking close to being done.

* * *

Sam approached Dean as he packed up the trunk of the car. The rest were inside getting rest before they had to go after Death.

"Let me guess. We're about to have a talk." Dean said, leaning against the side of the Impala.

"Look, Dean, um... for the record... I agree with you. About me. You think I'm too weak to take on Lucifer. Well, so do I. Believe me, I know exactly how screwed up I am. You, Bobby, Cas, Elena... I'm the least of any of you." he said, leaning against it as well as he handed Dean a beer.

"Sam..." Dean sighed.

"No, it's true. It is. But... I'm also all we got. If there was another way... but I don't think there is. There's just me. So I don't know what else to do. Except just try tto do what's got to be done." He said, looking at Dean.

"And... scene." A voice interrupted Dean from answering.

They both turned and glared at Crowley as he approached.

"There's something you need to see." He handed the newspaper he was holding to Sam.

"Niveus pharmaceuticals is rushing delivery of its new swine-flu vaccine to stem the tide of the unprecedented outbreak. Uh, shipments leave Wednesday." Sam read.

"Niveus pharmaceuticals. Get it?" Crowley asked.

All that he received was blank looks.

"You two are lucky you have your looks. Your demon lover, Brady? V.P. of distribution, Niveus."

Realization dawned on their faces.

"Ah, yes, that the sound of the abacus clacking? We all caught up?" Crowley asked.

They went back to glaring at him.

"So, Pestilence…" Dean said.

"... was spreading swine flu." Sam nodded.

"Yeah, but not just for shits and giggles. That was step one. Step two is the vaccine. And you think…" Dean said, looking at Crowley.

"I know. I'll stake my reputation… that vaccine is chock-full of grade-a, farm-fresh croatoan virus." Crowley confirmed.

"Simultaneous, countrywide distribution. It's quite a plan." Dean sighed, looking at Sam.

"They don't get to be horsemen for nothing. So, you boys better stock up on... well, everything. This time next Thursday, we'll all be living in zombieland." Crowley said.

* * *

_She was standing on a street. It was very windy and cold and thunderclouds were gathering above her. She was in a city of some sort and it was quite busy despite the weather. Pushing her hair out of her face, Elena looked down the street to see a white Cadillac driving down the street towards her. It slowed to a stop in a parallel parking space across the street and shut off. She watched closely as a thin man in a black suit climbed out. He was walking with a cane, but not to help his balance. It swung freely by his side as he walked slowly down the street. People seemed to be dancing around him so as not to run into him but one man in a business suit bumped his shoulder as he texted on his phone._

_She saw the businessman say something with a grimace before continuing his walk. The skinny man stopped and looked at his sleeve where the man bumped into it. He reached up and slowly and casually brushed it off before continuing on his walk. Her eyes flashed to where the businessman stopped, his eyes wide. Then he collapsed onto his knees, a crash of thunder overhead as he did so, before falling to the pavement, lifeless. Elena's eyes flashed to the skinny man, who hadn't looked back. Suddenly his head turned and he looked straight at her before nodding at her._

**A/N If you want the full effect of this scene, go to youtube and type in 'Supernatural O Death – Jen Titus'.**

* * *

Elena gasped as she sat up, the dream flashing before her eyes. Cas was standing beside the couch where she'd dozed off.

"You shouldn't be sleeping." He commented.

"I can sleep if I want." She said, sitting up and pulling her hair back out of her face.

"What were you dreaming about?" he asked.

"I think I was dreaming about Death, is that bad?" she huffed, standing and looking at him.

"I'm sorry, Cas. I'm just… on edge." She admitted.

"You should be. It's the end of days." Castiel said, facing her.

"I'm glad you're all right, though." She said, reaching out and touching his shoulder.

"I'm not all right." he argued.

"Well, I'm glad you're alive." She fixed her statement.

He nodded and looked out the door.

"Should we go help them?" he asked.

"Yeah, you go. I'm gonna go get dressed." Elena said, walking to the stairs.

* * *

"What's your problem?" Bobby asked as Castiel hovered by the van holding the shotgun that Dean gave him.

"This is what they mean by the eleventh hour, right?" he asked, staring off into space.

"Pretty much." Bobby said, wheeling over to the table in the covered area outside.

"Well, it's the eleventh hour, and I am useless. All I have is this." he waved the shotgun. "What am I even supposed to do with it?"

"Point it and shoot." Bobby grumbled.

"What I used to be…" he sighed.

"Are you really gonna bitch… to me? Quit pining for the varsity years... and load the damn truck." Bobby said, glaring at him.

Elena walked into the area at that moment and gave Bobby a severe look.

"You'd think you of all people could understand how it feels to be useless all of the sudden." She said, wheeling him out to where everyone else was gathering.

"Oh stop harpin' on me." he growled.

"No." she answered, leaning down to kiss his cheek as they came to a stop.

"All right, well... good luck stopping the whole zombie apocalypse." Dean said to Sam, Cas, and Bobby as they gathered.

"Yeah. Good luck killing Death." Sam said to him and Elena.

"Yeah." Dean nodded, turning to look at Bobby.

"Remember when we used to just... hunt wendigos? How simple things were?" Sam questioned, scoffing.

"Not really." Dean shrugged, wishing he were lying.

"Well, um..." Sam pulled out Ruby's knife "... you might need this." he said.

"Keep it." Crowley said, appearing behind Dean. "Dean's covered. Death's own. Kills, golly… demons and angels and reapers and, rumor has it, the very thing itself."

"How did you get that?" Cas asked.

"Hello? King of the crossroads? So, shall we?" the demon said, gesturing to the Impala.

Then he glanced at Bobby.

"Bobby, you just gonna sit there?" he asked, an eyebrow raised.

They all stared at him with confused looks.

"No, I'm gonna riverdance." The older hunter snapped.

"I suppose if you want to impress the ladies." Crowley shrugged.

He received more blank looks.

"Bobby, Bobby, Bobby. Really wasted that crossroads deal. Fact… you get more if you phrase it properly. So, I took the liberty of adding a teeny little sub-a clause on your behalf."

They stared at him with shock. Was he really admitting to helping Bobby? Their eyes went to Bobby as he stared at the demon.

"What can I say? I'm an altruist." Crowley's eyes flashed to Bobby. "Just gonna sit there?" he asked again.

They watched with surprise as one of his feet twitched. Then he slowly climbed out of the chair, standing up to his full height.

"Son of a bitch." He said, looking at them with bright eyes.

Elena, Dean, and Sam all grinned at him, recognizing the happiness in him.

"Yes, I know. Completely worth the deal. I'm a hell of a guy." Crowley said with a grin.

"Thanks." Bobby breathed, unable to believe that he was thanking a demon, much less this demon.

"This is getting maudlin. Can we go?" Crowley sighed.

Elena grinned and hugged Bobby before her and Dean turned to walk to the Impala.

"Still think it was a bad idea?" she asked, a bit worried as she looked at him.

He sighed and laced his fingers through hers.

"We'll see. But right now, seeing that look on Bobby's face, maybe I'm comin' around." he said.

She nodded and put her head on his shoulder as they walked, ready to face down Death, maybe.

* * *

"Yes to Lucifer. Then jump in the hole. It's an interesting plan." Castiel said after Sam explained his plan to him.

They were riding in Bobby's van, with the man himself insisting on driving.

"That's a word for it." Bobby commented.

"So? Go ahead and tell me it's the worst plan you ever heard." Sam sighed, leaning against the door.

"Of course. I am happy to say that if that's what you want to hear. But it's not what I think." Cas said from the backseat.

Bobby stared at him in the mirror, a face that said he wasn't helping.

"Really?" Sam said, surprised as he looked back at him.

"You and Dean have a habit of exceeding my expectations. He resisted Michael. Maybe you could resist Lucifer but there are things that you would need to know." Cas said, leaning forward.

"Like?" Sam said.

"Michael has found another vessel." He informed him.

"What?"

"It's your brother Adam. You must have considered it." Castiel said, staring at him with his unwavering eyes that hadn't changed a bit in his absence.

"We were trying not to." Sam sighed.

"Sam... if you say yes to Lucifer and then fail... this fight will happen. And the collateral... it'll be immense. There's also the demon blood." Castiel said.

"What? What are you talking about?" he demanded, his head whipping around quickly.

"To take in Lucifer, it would be more than you've ever drunk." Castiel answered.

"But... why?"

"It strengthens the vessel. Keeps it from exploding."

"But the guy he's in now…" Sam began.

"He's drinking gallons." Cas interrupted.

"And how is that not the worst plan you ever heard?" Bobby asked with a raised eyebrow.

* * *

They were sitting outside of the pharmaceutical warehouse peeking in with binoculars.

"Yup, they're loading up hotshots of Croatoan in the trucks. Okay. First truck don't leave for an hour. We get in, we plant the c-4 every 25 feet, then we pull the fire alarm." Bobby informed them.

"That truck is leaving." Castiel pointed out, gesturing to a truck that was indeed driving to the gate to leave.

"Balls!" Bobby yelled before sighing. "Okay, new plan."

As the demon driving the truck grew closer to the gate, he stopped to swipe his ID card and open it. As it slid open, Cas jumped onto the front of the truck and slammed the butt of the shotgun into his head, knocking him out. The demon fell forward onto the horn and it began blaring loudly as Cas turned and shot the ID machine, causing the gate to stop suddenly, blocking any trucks from exiting. Inside, a demon ran into the warehouse with a mixture of humans and demons inside.

"It's the Winchesters." He told another demon.

"Well, then, let's bake them up a little treat." The other said, opening one of the boxes of Croatoan as the other demons all put the warehouse on lockdown.

"Help!" the warehouse employees cried as Sam and Bobby ran up.

"Side door!" Bobby instructed as they ran around the building.

Sam tried it and it was locked.

"Help me, please! Help!" one of the human employees yelled.

"Get back!" Sam yelled, stepping back as he aimed the gun at the lock.

He shot through it and Bobby ripped the door open.

"Go. Come on. Go." he said as the people ran out.

They heard screaming and ran inside to see a whole pack of Croatoan infected people attacking someone else. The infected looked up at them with their creepy red eyes, starting towards them as they took aim, prepared to kill them. They fell one by one, finally all dead.

"Help me! Please! Help!" they heard a woman screaming from somewhere among the high stacks of boxes.

"There's still people here." Sam said, turning to run into the stacks.

"Sam, no!" Bobby yelled.

"Wait here." He said, ignoring him as he handed him the demon-killing knife.

"Damn." Bobby cursed, backing up as he looked around for anyone else who could be dangerous.

* * *

"Hey, let's stop for pizza." Crowley said as they walked under a bridge in Chicago.

Elena's hood was up and her hands were shoved in her pockets. Dean was huddled against the wind but his arm was still around her. Crowley was acting like nothing was amiss.

"Are you kidding?" Dean demanded, glaring over at him.

"Just heard it was good." The demon shrugged.

Dean rolled his eyes and looked down.

"Did you have to wear those shoes?" he asked, smirking at them.

"They're comfortable." She defended herself.

"They're ugly." He replied.

"Shut up! Leave my comfortable, ugly shoes alone!" she said, shoving him as he chuckled.

"Up ahead. Big, ugly building. Ground zero. Horseman's stable, if you will. He's in there." Crowley interrupted their teasing as he came to a stop.

"How do you know?" Dean asked.

Elena grimaced at the men in black suits who were all standing outside of the building facing it reverently.

"Have you met me? Cause I know. Also, the block is squirming with reapers. I'll be right back." They both looked to see him disappear.

"Boy, is my face red." They whirled around to see Crowley standing behind him. "Death's not in there."

Elena sighed and shook her head.

"You want to cut the cute and get to the part where you tell me where he is?" Dean demanded, stepping forward.

"Sorry. I don't know." He shrugged, turning to walk off.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Wait a minute. You don't know?" Dean snapped.

"Signs pointed. I'm just as shocked as you." he said as they trailed behind him.

"Bobby made a deal with you for this!"

"Relax. All deals are full return or store credit. We'll catch Death in the next doomed city." Crowley shrugged.

"Millions, Crowley. Millions of people are about to die any minute." Elena said desperately.

"True. So I strongly suggest we get out of here." He said, turning to them and spreading his arms out just as a huge gust of wind hit them.

They both glared at him.

* * *

Sam ran back, escorting two uninfected employees to where Bobby was waiting.

"Go! Go!" Bobby yelled.

He turned to see Sam diving back into the fray, ready to rescue more people.

* * *

They were driving through downtown Chicago, Elena sitting in the backseat with Dean driving and Crowley in the front seat.

"So, what? Call in a bomb threat? A thousand bomb threats? I mean, how the hell am I supposed to get three million people out of Chicago in the next 10 minutes?" Dean asked.

Crowley disappeared without answering.

"Come on!" Dean growled.

"Dean." She pointed to a pizzeria where she saw Crowley peeking in.

He turned back to them, waving and pointing at the building, mouthing something.

"What? I can't hear you!" Dean yelled back.

"I said I found him." Crowley said, reappearing in the Impala and giving them both a start. "Death… he's in there."

He pointed at the pizzeria. Elena and Dean stared at it skeptically.

"You coming or..." Crowley disappeared as Dean spoke. "… not."

* * *

"All clear." Sam sighed as he ran up and the last of the humans ran out of the warehouse.

"Sam!" Bobby yelled just before a Croatoan infected human jumped on him, knocking him to the ground.

Bobby tried shooting at it but he was out of bullets. Sam struggled with it as the thing tried to bite him. Suddenly a shotgun came out of nowhere and blasted the thing's head off.

"Actually, these things can be useful." Cas commented as Bobby helped Sam up.

"Can we commit our act of domestic terrorism already? Let's go." Bobby snapped, grumpy.

* * *

Elena and Dean crept through the body riddled diner, both trying to be silent as Dean held the scythe firmly in his hand. She heard a sizzling noise as they drew closer to the only live being sitting at a table. Dean suddenly hissed and dropped the weapon with a clatter.

"Thanks for returning that." Death said and they looked up to see it sitting on the table next to him.

"Join me. The pizza's delicious." He said.

They exchanged a hesitant look before Dean took her hand and they walked to him slowly, knowing they didn't have much of a choice since it was Death.

"Sit down. Took you long enough to find me. I've been wanting to talk to you." Death said as they slowly sat in the other two chairs at the table, Dean across from Death and Elena sitting to his right.

"I got to say… I have mixed feelings about that." Dean admitted as they clutched each other's hands tightly, both of them expecting that he was going to kill them right then and there, especially since they were originally going to attempt to kill him.

"S-so is this the part where... where you kill us?" Dean asked.

"You have an inflated sense of your importance. To a thing like me, a thing like you, well... think how you'd feel if a bacterium sat at your table and started to get snarky. This is one little planet in one tiny solar system in a galaxy that's barely out of its diapers." Death explained. "I'm old, Dean. Very old. So I invite you to contemplate how insignificant I find you."

They stared at him, both of their eyes wide and hearts pounding. Elena was just waiting to zap them out of there if things went south. He lifted his hand and they both flinched. He stared at them, gesturing to the deep dish pizza.

"Eat." He said.

Elena looked over at Dean, who shrugged and slide a bite off of the tray onto a plate. Death's eyes went to her.

"I'm not hungry but… thank you." she said.

Dean hesitantly took a bite of the pizza as Death's eyes turned back to him.

"Good, isn't it?"

He nodded as Elena stared at him.

"Well, I got to ask. How old are you?" Dean asked.

"As old as God. Maybe older. Neither of us can remember anymore. Life, death, chicken, egg. Regardless… at the end, I'll reap him, too." Death said before taking a bite.

"God?" Elena said, her eyebrows raising.

"You'll reap God?" Dean said, just as incredulously.

"Oh, yes. God will die, too."

They exchanged another look.

"Well, this is way above our pay grade." Dean breathed, smiling nervously as he wiped his mouth with a napkin.

"Just a bit." Death agreed.

"So, then why are we still breathing, sitting here with you? Uh... w-what do you want?" Dean asked.

"The leash around my neck… off. Lucifer has me bound to him. Some unseemly little spell. He has me where he wants, when he wants. That's why I couldn't go to you. I had to wait for you to catch up. He made me his weapon. Hurricanes, floods, raising the dead. I'm more powerful than you can process, and I'm enslaved to a bratty child with a temper tantrum." Death said, sounding put off by the whole situation.

He was nothing like either of them imagined and that terrified them

"And you think... I can unbind you?" Dean questioned.

"There's your ridiculous bravado again. Of course you can't. But you can help me take the bullets out of Lucifer's gun. I understand you want this." he said, holding up his hand to show his ring. ( Death holds up his ring)

"Yeah." Dean said.

"I'm inclined to give it to you." he said, his eyes flashing between them.

"To give it to me?" Dean said, shocked.

"That's what I said." Death nodded.

"But what about..." Dean looked over his shoulder to where it was suddenly raining very hard outside of the windows.

"Chicago? I suppose it can stay. I like the pizza. There are conditions." Death warned them.

"Okay." Dean said.

"Like?" Elena questioned.

"You have to do whatever it takes to put Lucifer in his cell."

"Of course." Dean said immediately.

Her hand tightened around his and she stared at him, knowing exactly what Death meant. His eyes flashed to her and back to the Horseman.

"Whatever it takes." Death repeated.

"That's the plan." Dean nodded.

"No. No plan. Not yet. Your brother. He's the one that can stop Lucifer. The only one." Death said.

"What, you think…" Dean said, finally realizing what he meant.

"I know. So, I need a promise. You're going to let your brother jump right into that fiery pit. Well, do I have your word?" Death asked.

Elena bit her lip as she watched Dean, waiting to see what he was going to say.

"Okay, yeah. Yes." Dean said but Elena could see it in his eyes, he was lying.

Apparently so could Death.

"That had better be yes, Dean. You know you can't cheat death." Dean stared at him with his eyes still wide.

"Now, would you like the instruction manual?" Death asked as he slid the ring into Dean's hand.

* * *

"Well, how'd it go at the Rockettes audition?" Dean said as Bobby walked to where he was sitting at a picnic table outside, putting the rings together and taking them apart again.

"Well, high kicks… fair. Boobs need work. I walked up and down stairs all night for no damn reason. I'm sore." Bobby chuckled. "Feels so good, I'm scared it's a dream. But then I remember that the world's dying bloody, so, drink?"

He handed Dean a beer as he sat down.

"Check it out." he said once he took it, showing him how the rings linked together into a circle around Death's ring.

"Hmm. Oh. So Death told you how to operate those? The whole deal?" Bobby questioned.

"Yeah. It's nuts. Of course, I got bigger problems now." Dean said.

"Really? Like?" Bobby asked.

Dean glanced up at him.

"What do you think Death does to people who lie to his face?" he asked.

"Nothing good." Bobby said, nodding as he took a drink.

"Yeah." He agreed.

* * *

Elena looked up as Sam walked in. He looked weary.

"Lay down." she instructed, lifting her arms from her lap.

He sighed and collapsed on the couch, his legs dangling off the end of the couch and his head in her lap where she put a pillow for him.

"Bobby told us you saved a lot of people at that factory. That's good." She said, looking down at him.

"Yeah." He said, his eyes closed as he threw his arm over his face.

"What is it?" she asked, putting her hand on his forehead and swiping her thumb over his temple just like she did for her brother when he had a headache.

"Just all of this. Everything is piling up and…"

"It's getting to be too much." she finished.

He removed his arm and looked up at her, nodding with a helpless look on his face.

* * *

"What'd you say?" Bobby asked, referring to the lie Dean told to Death.

"That I was cool with Sam driving the bus on the whole Lucifer plan." Dean replied.

"So Death thinks Sam ought to say yes, huh?" Bobby sighed.

"I don't know. Yeah." He shrugged. "But, I mean, of course he'd say that. He works for Lucifer."

"Against his will, I thought he said." Bobby reminded him.

"Well, I'd say, take his sob story with a fat grain of salt. I mean, he is Death." Dean said.

"Exactly. He's Death. Think of the kind of bird's-eye view." The older man said.

"Seriously?" Dean said, looking at Bobby incredulously as he thought he might have been warming up to the Sam says yes plan.

"I'm just saying…" Bobby began.

"Well, don't." Dean interrupted. "I mean, what happened to you being against this?"

"Look, I'm not saying Sam ain't an ass-full of character defects. But..." he trailed off.

"But what?"

"Back at Niveus? I watched that kid pull one civilian out after another. Must have saved 10 people. Never stopped. Never slowed down. We're hard on him, Dean. We've always been. But in the meantime... he's been running into burning buildings since he was, what, twelve?" Bobby explained.

Dean sighed, shaking his head.

"Pretty much."

* * *

"You're gonna say yes to Lucifer no matter what we say, aren't you?" Elena asked somberly.

He turned his head and stared off.

"I have to. I know you don't think that I do but I do. It's… like penance. Or salvation. I don't know. I have to redeem myself." Sam sighed.

"You have, Sam. Look at how many people you've saved." Elena argued.

"Yeah but does it make up for how many people have died since Lucifer rose?" he asked, looking straight into her eyes.

"It's not your fault." She said.

"Yes it is. Even if it's not all my fault, it's partly my fault. You and Dean both warned me. I didn't listen and I've got to pay for that way more than I should." Sam said.

"By going to hell?" Elena murmured, emotion filling her voice.

He sighed.

"However I can." He said.

"Sam, you and Dean… God you two are the most self-sacrificing people I know and you both hate it when others sacrifice for you. It's… twisted." She said, shaking her head.

"No one said we were normal." Sam shrugged.

"Normal isn't the problem. Insane is." She replied.

"You have to let me do this, Elena. It's my decision and… I need to do it." he said.

She sighed and leaned her head back on the couch.

"We need a break." She sighed.

"It's the apocalypse." He reminded her.

Elena smiled.

"So? You forget that I can time travel now. It'll still be here when we get back." she shrugged, swiping her hand through his long hair.

* * *

"Look, Sam's got a… darkness in him. I'm not saying he don't. But he's got a hell of a lot of good in him, too." Bobby said.

"I know." Dean agreed.

"Then you know Sam will beat the devil...Or die trying. That's the best we could ask for. So I got to ask, Dean. What exactly are you afraid of? Losing? Or losing your brother?" Bobby asked.

* * *

**Author's Note: I hope you liked it! Review please!**

**A few things:**

**1. Next chapter is NOT the finale. It's a chapter that's in between. A lot of characters are going to be in the next chapter so prepare yourself.**

**2. Two chapters left… dun dun duuuuuun!**

**3. You're all amazing and I love you.**

**4. REVIEW PLEASE!**


	29. Chapter 29

**Disclaimer: I do not own TVD or Supernatural**

**Thanks to IgnitingFireworks, Dark-Supernatural-Angel, RHatch89, Slytherin Cat, DrawingMyHeartOut, Nyssandria, CherrySin, DamonSalvatore789, slayerdiaries, diehardromantic, chiwi, Deanwinchesterrocks, TheElegantFaerie, and the three guests for reviewing!**

**To Dark-Supernatural-Angel, Gabriel isn't showing up again until the next chapter and there is a good reason for that happening that will be explained when he does show up. Same with Balthazar.**

**To DamonSalvatorelover789, which story do you mean?**

**To TheElegantFaerie, I'll have a poll at the end of this chapter for the name of the next story.**

**Honestly to all of my readers, if you want to talk about the story or feel like talking about anything, feel free to message me. I am an open book and I will answer anything or talk about anything. I will always answer your messages.**

**A few things:**

**1. I am so so so sorry that it took me so long to update. I've had a really bad last few days. I saw my ex-boyfriend again for the first time since we broke up and he was a dick and I cried a lot these past few days and I've been eating and watching Supernatural and Doctor Who and trying not to die of sadness. I couldn't write because I knew that it would be all sadness and angst and I wanted this chapter to be mostly happy. So that's why. Sorry again.**

**2. This chapter is happy, verging on silly, but I figured we needed some comic relief before the next chapter.**

**3. It's not going to be long either but I've already started on the last chapter so it won't be too long before that's up.**

**4. Outfits are on my profile.**

* * *

**Music:**

**Bad Medicine – Bon Jovi**

**Bad Case of Loving You – Robert Palmer**

**Wheel In the Sky – Journey**

**Panama – Van Halen**

**In My Veins - Andrew Belle (Elena and Dean in the bedroom)**

* * *

"Elena… this seems a little…"

"Shut up." She interrupted Dean, lying back on the sand.

"It's just… the apocalypse is happening and we're laying on a beach." Sam said.

"Stop thinking and enjoy the peace." She sighed.

"Where are we?" Dean asked, shifting uncomfortably in the swim shorts she had appear on his body.

Elena peeked one eye open and looked around.

"An island in the Caribbean, I think." She said, feeling the soft, white sand underneath her fingers.

"Why are we?" Sam said.

"Because I said so."

"But…" Dean began.

"Would you just shut it, ya idjit? I'm trying to enjoy the peace here." Bobby growled where he was sitting underneath the umbrella in khaki shorts, a Hawaiian shirt and his hat still firmly in place as well as a beer in his hand.

"Thank you." Elena sighed as she lay back on the sand again.

* * *

"_We're going to… what?" Bobby asked, his eyebrow quirked._

"_You heard me, if we're about to throw our lives to hell, we're gonna have a day first." Elena said with a sharp nod._

"_But… apocalypse." Sam said._

"_Lucifer… Michael…" Dean listed._

"_Family." Elena said simply._

_None of them could argue with that._

"_What do you want us to do?" Bobby asked, liking this idea of hers._

"_Stay here. I'll fetch the rest of them." Elena said, stepping away._

"_Rest of them?" Dean asked, his brow furrowing._

"_I said family, Winchester. And I meant it." Elena said, smiling at them before disappearing._

* * *

"I, for one, appreciate you doing this. We all need a little break." Ellen informed her, reaching over Jo to pat Elena's hand.

"Thanks, Ellen." Elena said, smiling at her before giving the boys a look that said that was how they were supposed to thank you.

"Do you have anything other than beer?" Damon asked, searching through the cooler.

"We didn't bring scotch." Dean scoffed.

"Why not?" Alaric said.

"Because we're at the beach and the beach is not a scotch-drinking affair. It's a beer-drinking thing." Elena said with a roll of her eyes.

"Or margarita." Caroline said, holding up her drink.

"Agreed." Elena, Bonnie, and Jo said, holding up theirs as well.

* * *

"_We're going where?" Caroline asked as Elena gathered them all in her house._

"_You heard me. Now everyone go home and get dressed and all that. I'll be back when I go pick up two other people. Be ready." Elena warned._

"_Why are we going to the beach?" Damon asked, squinting at her._

"_Because I said so." Elena shrugged, grinning._

"_Do I have go to?" Alaric asked._

"_Yes." She said._

"_Won't it look weird if we all disappear from Mystic Falls?" Caroline asked._

"_It's only for a day. Now go get dressed and meet back here." Elena instructed before disappearing._

_When she reappeared, she had two guns pointed at her face almost immediately._

"_It's just me." she announced, putting her hands up in surrender._

_Jo and Ellen sighed with relief, lowering the weapons._

"_How'd you find us?" Ellen asked._

"_I can find anyone now." Elena answered._

"_What's up? Is everything okay?" Jo questioned._

"_Yep. We're having a family day and you're invited. Bobby's gonna be there, the boys and some of my friends and family from Mystic Falls. Please come?" Elena asked pleadingly._

"_Is that really a good idea?" Ellen asked with uncertainty._

"_Yes, it is. We all need a break from all the crazy shit happening. We would love it if you were there." she said._

_They stared at her for a moment._

"_There's gonna be alcohol."_

"_We're in."_

* * *

Elena looked around with a slight smile at everyone who was spread around the otherwise deserted beach. When her eyes fell on the one person who looked out of place, she rolled her eyes and scooted back, sitting next to where he was, his back ramrod straight.

"You could at least take off the trenchcoat." She said to Cas.

"I do not understand why I am here." He admitted.

"Cause you're family, Cas." She said, nudging him.

He looked over at her and sighed.

"We should be focusing on Lucifer and Michael and how we're going to stop the apocalypse." He said.

"We already know how we're going to stop the apocalypse." Elena sighed, looking down at the drink in her hands.

Castiel's eyes flashed over to Sam.

"We should be getting him ready." He said in a low voice.

"No, we should be letting him have this one last day of happiness. Please, Cas. Just this one day. Then we can go back to the doom and gloom of real life. Try to have fun." Elena said.

He glanced around.

"I don't understand how this is fun." He admitted, though his tone was a little bit lighter.

"That's because…" she said, leaning over to the the cooler and pulling out a beer. "… you aren't drinking."

Cas took it from her before opening it and nodding.

"I'll try." He allowed.

"Thank you." she said with a smile.

"You think there's sharks out there?" Dean said, looking around.

"Probably." Jeremy said.

"I doubt it. And even if there are, they're probably not anywhere near the shallow water." Elena corrected him.

"Good." Dean said, sitting up.

"What are you doing?" Elena asked, pushing her sunglasses up to look at him.

"Enjoying myself." He said with a grin, reaching down and pulling her up.

"Dean!" she squeaked as he threw her over his shoulder.

He began running towards the water and she struggled against his hold weakly even though she could have broken it by now.

"Dean! My dress!" she complained, laughing.

Dean let her down momentarily, practically yanking it over her head and causing her sunglasses to go flying off. Then she was thrown over his shoulder again.

"I disagree with this!" she announced.

"You're the one who wanted fun!" he yelled back as he ran into the warm water.

She shrieked happily as he dove into the water with her and they went tumbling underneath. When they surfaced, she slapping his arm lightly, laughing just like him.

"Ass!" she yelled, pushing her hair back as she found her footing on the ocean floor.

"You love me, even when I am an ass." He said, pulling her close.

"Uh huh. You'd like to think so." she said, grinning as she slid her arms around his shoulders.

She had to admit, she liked the way the water glistened on his sun-drenched, impressive muscles. As her eyes took him in hungrily, he smirked.

"You see somethin' you like?" he said.

"Oh yeah." She said with a coy grin, leaning in and kissing him thoroughly.

Then they heard the yells. Their heads turned to see the others running towards the water, following their lead. Well, not everyone. Bobby, Cas, Ellen, Jo, and Sam remained behind. Elena was surprised to see even the Salvatores jumping into the water, grinning like children. It was great to see everyone getting along. It was sad that Matt wasn't able to be there but he was working, like always.

"Are we gonna have to go back and drag your brother?" Elena said.

"Wait a minute." Dean said, looking at the group still on the beach.

After a few moments, Sam glanced over at Jo and said something. The small blonde shook her head, smiling slightly. He said something again and she let out a laugh. Then he was up and pulling into her arms as Ellen yelled encouragments at him. Jo shrieked and laughed as he ran her towards the water along with everyone else, the blonde looking almost like a child in his arms.

"That's my boy." Dean said, grinning.

Elena laughed as they surfaced and Jo delivered a full punch to Sam's arm, causing him to laugh out loud.

"See? This was a good idea." Elena said proudly.

"You are a genius." Dean said.

"I know." She shrugged, pulling him close again.

"Ugh, would you stop being so cute?" Caroline said, rolling her eyes.

"You're one to talk." Elena said, grinning at the way that she was on Tyler's back, her legs wrapped around his waist as he waded through the waist-deep water.

Bonnie and Jeremy were out further, Jeremy holding her in his arms bridal style. Damon and Stefan were nowhere to be seen and Elena had a feeling that they were taking advantage of their ability to hold their breath for unlimited lengths of time. Jo was trying her hardest to dunk Sam under the water, practically climbing on his shoulders to do so.

"Thank you for this." Dean murmured, his hand stroking her cheek.

Elena shrugged and simply pressed her lips to his.

"We needed it." she said.

They hadn't told anyone else of Sam's plan. Only her, the brothers, Bobby, and Cas knew and they weren't planning on telling anyone. No one needed to have this day ruined because of that. Elena glanced up at the beach with a pensive expression.

"What's up?" Dean asked.

She shook her head and bit her lip.

"I just wish that Gabriel was here." She admitted softly. "He was a frustrating ass most of the time but… he was family too. He was… I loved him."

"I know." Dean sighed, pulling her in so that she could lay her head on his chest.

They remained that way for a few moments until Caroline announced that they were going to play chicken. Dean grinned at Elena before lifting her easily to climb on his shoulders.

* * *

Their laughing echoed around the bar as they all sat around a large table. They were in Sioux Falls, all having gone back to have a fun night at the bar for the rest of the evening and night. Everyone had a shower, whether it was at the hotel or Bobby's house. The bar had a few other patrons but they took up most of the customers.

"You glued his hand to a beer bottle?" Jo asked, a huge grin on her face.

"He put itching powder in my boxers!" Sam defended himself.

"He messed with my baby."

"He put a spoon in my mouth while I was sleeping."

"God you two are like five year olds stuffed in older bodies." Elena said, shaking her head.

"You don't even know about the Nair in the shampoo." Sam sighed, touching his beloved hair.

Elena turned her gaze on Dean, her eyebrow raised.

"He put a hair-waxing strip on each of my legs while I was sleeping and tore them off at the same time." he defended himself.

Sam let out a guffaw as everyone else smirked at the thought.

"I don't think I've ever heard such a high pitched scream escape from his mouth… ever." Sam said, grinning at the thought.

"What about the cat in the locker incident?" Elena said, letting out a chuckle when she remembered the inhuman noise that escaped from Dean's mouth.

"That's not fair! I was sick! And paranoid!" Dean defended himself.

"What's this incident?" Caroline asked, leaning in with an interested look.

"Oh you're gonna love this." Sam said, grinning as he launched into the story.

Dean looked unamused as they all laughed along with the retelling of his ridiculous behavior. Even Castiel looked the tiniest bit amused at the story. The angel was much more relaxed after Ellen challenged him to a drinking contest rematch.

"It was not that funny at the time." he said as they all howled with laughter.

"It really was." Elena said with a peal of laughter.

"I request… singing." Caroline said, stumbling to her feet slightly drunkenly.

"No, no singing." Damon said, shaking his head.

"I didn't ask you, Salvatore." She shot back, gesturing to Elena and Bonnie to stand with her.

"I'm only gonna sing if Jo sings." Elena said, grinning over at the blonde.

"Oh I don't sing." She said, shaking her head.

"You do if you're in our group." Caroline said.

Elena turned to the bartender and owner, who recognized them from their brief stays in Mystic Falls.

"Roger, do you mind if we sing?" she asked, smiling at him.

"Not at all, ladies. In fact, I'll give you control over the radio." He said, pointing at the jukebox that that was fixed so that it didn't need money to work.

"Thanks Roger!" they chorused, grinning.

"How about now, Joanna Beth?" Elena asked, standing up and quirking an eyebrow at her.

"I'll be a backup singer." She sighed, standing up and taking a swig of her beer.

"Good idea, we'll all be Elena's backup singers cause she's singing first." Caroline said, skipping over to the jukebox.

"Wait, I didn't sign up for this." Elena said, her eyes wide.

Bonnie and Jo dragged her to the small stage that had to be there because there were karaoke nights every Thursday. The rest followed clapped and cheered as they all ran up onto it. Roger came up and handed them all microphones that were connected to the speakers. Elena began laughing as the song came on, realizing that she knew it by heart because it was a song she always sang with Caroline and Bonnie.

"Your love is like bad medicine! Bad medicine is what I need! Shake it up, just like bad medicine! There ain't no doctor that can cure my disease!" she sang into the microphone along with Bon Jovi.

True to their word, Bonnie, Caroline, and Jo sang backup for her.

"I ain't got a fever got a permanent disease! It'll take more than a doctor to prescribe a remedy! I got lots of money but it isn't what I need! Gonna take more than a shot to get this poison out of me! I got all the symptoms count 'em one, two, three!" Elena held up her fingers along with the numbers, grinning.

The boys and Ellen minus Cas, who looked vaguely confused and a little afraid, clapped and cheered as they sang and danced, all a little tipsy.

"First you need…" Elena sang.

"That's what you get for falling in love!" her backups yelled.

"Then you bleed…"

"You get a little but it's never enough!"

"Yeah when you're on your knees!" Elena.

"That's what you get for falling in love!" Bonnie, Caroline, and Jo.

"And now this girl's addicted cause your kiss is the drug!" She yelled into the microphone, changing the song to fit her gender.

"Your love is like bad medicine! Bad medicine is what I need! Shake it up, just like bad medicine! There ain't no doctor that can cure my disease!" They all sang as they jumped around.

As the girls sang the chorus, Elena jumped off the stage and strutted to the table, her eyes on Dean.

"I don't need no needle to be giving me a thrill!" Elena reached him and sat in his lap, staring at him with the microphone at her mouth.

"And I don't need no anesthesia or a nurse to bring a pill! I got a dirty down addiction!" her hand trailed down his cheek. "It doesn't leave a track! I got a jone for your affection like a monkey on my back!" she sang, her hands trailing down his neck to his chest.

"There ain't no paramedic gonna save this heart attack!" her hand laid over his heart and she kissed his cheek before jumping up, throwing a wink at him before walking back to the stage.

"When you need…" She sang as she walked up.

"That's what you get for falling in love!" the girls said back to her.

"Then you bleed…" Elena stopped and pointed at them.

"You get a little but it's never enough!" they yelled, shaking their heads in synch.

"Yeah when you're on your knees!"

"That's what you get for falling in love!"

"Now this girl's addicted and your kiss is the drug!" she danced onto the stage, grinning like mad.

"Your love is like bad medicine! Bad medicine is what I need! Shake it up, just like bad medicine! There ain't no doctor that can cure my disease! Bad, bad medicine! Oh it's what I need!" They sang the chorus again, all mostly out of breath but unwilling to stop singing because they were having fun.

There was a break for a guitar solo before Elena had to sing by herself with nothing but the drums on the song playing.

"I need a respirator cause I'm running out of breath! You're an all night generator wrapped in faded jeans and sexyness!" Elena changed the words once again, not even caring if they made sense as she pointed to her Winchester. "When you find your medicine you take what you can get! Cause if there's something better baby well they haven't found it yet!"

When the song finally came to an end, they all stumbled off of the stage and into their chairs, the entire bar, including the other patrons, clapping, whistling, and cheering loudly for them. Elena leaned into Dean, laughing while they all caught their breath.

"Your turn." She said, pointing to Dean and Sam.

"Wait, what?" Dean said, shaking his head in a negative motion.

"Come on! Please?" she pleaded.

"Only if you sing it with us." Sam said, leaning forward with a smile.

"I just got done singing!" she complained.

"Why can't the angel sing?" Ellen asked, pointing at Cas.

The angel looked terrified at the prospect, almost as scared as he looked when Elena found him at the 'den of iniquity' with Dean.

"Tyler come sing with me while they argue." Caroline (aka the woman of endless energy) said, dragging him onto the stage.

"Caaaaroline!" Tyler complained as she switched a song on.

They began singing 'Bad Case of Loving You' as everyone watching clapping and singing with them. When they finished, Elena looked over at the brothers hopefully.

"Fine." Dean sighed.

She grinned happily as she took their hands and dragged them on the stage. After quickly choosing a song that she knew they would know, she ran back up and stood between them, all three of them holding microphones.

"Winter is here again oh Lord, haven't been home in a year or more." Elena sang, starting them out. "I hope she holds on a little longer."

"Sent a letter on a long summer day." Sam took his turn, making Elena grin over at him. "Made of silver, not of clay."

"I've been runnin' down this dusty road." He and Elena sang together. "Wheel in the sky keeps on turnin'!"

"I don't know where I'll be tomorrow!" Dean finally sang, throwing all pride out the window as he sang on the same level of highness as Steve Perry.

"Wheel in the sky keeps on turnin'!" Sam and Elena sang.

"I've been trying to make it home! Got to make it before too long!" Dean sang by himself, twirling Elena around. "I can't take this very much longer!"

"I'm stranded in the sleet and rain! Don't think I'm ever gonna make it home again! The mornin' sun is risin'!" Sam sang as she twirled right into his arms and he danced her around.

"It's kissing the day!" she sang by herself, smiling happily.

When the song was over, she wasn't quite ready to be done. They were going to have to leave at some point but she wanted one last memory to hold in her mind as they went into the apocalypse.

"Everyone's turn now. One more song before we turn in." Elena said, dragging everyone except for Cas, whom she knew would be completely clueless, out of their chairs.

Dean jogged over the the jukebox, deciding that it was his turn to choose a song. When it came on, he looked over at them, grinning and nodding.

"Jump back, what's that sound? Here she comes, full blast and top down!" several of them all sang as they danced around the bar.

Elena, instead of dancing with Dean or Sam or her friends, was making Bobby dance with her as he grumbled about needing more alcohol to be able to dance. She didn't care, forcing him to move around with her.

Hot shoe, burnin' down the avenue. Model citizen zero discipline." Bobby finally twirled her into Dean's arms but Jo didn't let him sit down, forcing him to dance with her now.

Elena and the blonde shared a conspiratorial wink as they twirled around.

"Don't you know she's coming home with me? You'll lose her in the turn. I'll get her!" Dean sang into her ear as they moved with each other, their arms holding each other close.

She liked it when he actually sang instead of yelling out lyrics with her and Sam.

"Panama, Panama!" Everyone yelled, much to the amusement instead of annoyance of the rest of the bar.

Dean twirled her around and she swayed with him against his chest, her head leaned back as they smiled at everyone who was dancing together. Ellen was dancing with Bobby now as Jo danced around with Sam, their height difference amusing but their dancing absolutely adorable. Even Stefan and Damon were having a good time. Cas still looked vaguely confused at the antics of the humans that he was surrounded by. When the song ended, they finally had to admit that it was time to shut down the party since all of their voices were sore. Elena walked with Dean up to the bar to pay off the tab of their drinks and food.

"What's the party for?" Roger asked.

"Hmm?" Dean said, looking up at him as Elena curled into his side and he placed an arm over her shoulders.

"The celebration? You finally decide to make an honest woman out of her?" he asked, smiling at Elena.

She flushed and her eyes widened.

"Oh… no." she stammered, shaking her head.

"Nah. Just having a good time." Dean said at the same time, smiling as he took the card back from Roger.

"Oh, well maybe one day." Roger said with a wink.

Elena was still blushing as they backed away from the counter.

"Yeah, one day." Dean said, not sounding at all like he was joking.

She looked up at him with wide eyes and he simply smiled down at her, placing a kiss on her lips.

"Come on, let's get home." he said, steering her out of the bar with everyone else among them.

* * *

They were back at Bobby's house, everyone standing out front waiting for Elena to take them back to their respective homes and towns. But first they were all saying goodbye.

"Everything is going to be okay, right? After all this apocalypse business and you kick Lucifer's ass?" Caroline asked as she hugged both her and Bonnie at the same time.

Elena drew away and forced a genuine looking smile on her face.

"Of course. Yeah I'll come see you. Battle wounds and all." She said, her voice so steady that she almost believed herself.

It was easier to lie to them rather than to say that there was a better chance of her, and the others, not surviving this fight. But they couldn't know that. It would be easier for them to go home now if they thought they would see her in just a few days. And Caroline and Bonnie seemed to believe her because of the confidence she was putting off. But when she went to hug the Salvatores, it was obvious that they did not believe her words.

"You could come back with us, avoid this whole mess." Damon said as she hugged him goodbye.

"I can't, Damon. I have to do this. I have to be there for them." She said, looking back at her hunters and her angel.

"Yeah cause they wouldn't want you to be safe." He scoffed.

"I'm sorry, Damon." She said softly.

He shook his head and turned away, wanting to hide away his emotions like he always did. She smiled sadly and hugged Stefan. After hugging Alaric, Ellen, and Jo (who wanted to help with the apocalypse, but the rest of them say no because they knew that the Harvelle woman wouldn't last no matter how much they wanted them to) Elena walked to Jeremy.

"Promise me you'll stay safe." He said, looking down at her.

"I'll try my best." She agreed.

He sighed and pulled her into a hug, tight as he could.

"That's all I can ask for."

For the first time that day, tears stung her eyes as she squeezed him back.

"I love you Jer." She whimpered, her voice breaking on his name.

"I love you too, Elena." he said, one single tear falling from his eye.

* * *

After returning everyone back to their towns, Elena was once again alone with Bobby, Sam, Dean, and Cas.

"We should get some sleep." Dean acknowledged as they all stood in the study.

It was unspoken, but all of them knew that it was back to reality the next day and none of them were ready for that. There was a minute of silence as they all stared around at each other.

"Come on." Elena said softly, turning to pull Dean upstairs.

"Elena…" she stopped in her tracks to turn and look at Sam.

"Thank you for today. You made it one of the best days of my life for sure, but I think that you made it a good day for everyone." Sam said.

She smiled and nodded.

"Love you guys." She said.

"We love you too." Sam said.

Bobby nodded, agreeing with him. Even Cas didn't deny the statement. When they got to the room, Elena pulled off her jacket and kicked off her boots as Dean sat on the bed, doing the same. Before she took off her dress, she turned to him.

"In the bar… when we were talking to Roger…" she said uncertainly.

He looked up at her with his striking green eyes, staring deep into her own dark brown eyes.

"Yeah?" Dean questioned.

"You said that… well about the… honest woman, thing…" she said.

The corners of his mouth lifted slightly.

"Yeah?" he said again.

"Did you mean that?" she asked, tilting her head to the side.

He sighed and reached out, pulling her close.

"I meant it." he said as he pulled her onto his lap so that she was straddling him. "Because if we make it out of this shitstorm, I want to spend the rest of my life, whether it's sixty minutes or sixty years, with you. And I am pretty positive that you and I will get married one day."

Elena smiled at him, stroking his cheek.

"Dean Winchester, talking about marriage. I never thought I'd see the day." She said with a slight smile.

"Yeah, it's pretty shocking." He agreed, smiling as well.

Elena sighed and locked her hands in his hair, pressing her forehead to his.

"You know what tomorrow is?" he asked.

She looked at him and nodded slowly.

"It's the day, a year exactly since we first met." She breathed.

Dean leaned in and pressed his lips to hers softly.

"I love you." he breathed against her lips.

"I love you too." She whispered back, her voice laced with emotion as one lonely tear fell down her cheek.

**LEMONY**

He slowly began unzipping her dress, his lips traveling down her throat to her collarbone and over to her shoulder as he slipped the dress down and let it pool at her waist, leaving her torso bare except for her bra.

"The day isn't over. Pretend with me for a little bit longer." he murmured.

Elena didn't say anything, simply letting her head fall back as he peppered her shoulders and throat with kisses, causing desire to pool in her stomach.

"Dean." She moaned quietly, her voice simply a plea as his arms wrapped around her back.

He gently unhooked her bra and slid it off of her shoulders, tossing it off in the room. She had his shirt off in the next moment. Dean didn't waste any time before brushing one of his hands over her soft breast, flicking his thumb over the hardened nipple. Elena's whimper encouraged him and his lips were suddenly wrapped around the other, causing her to cry out in pleasure. After lavishing attention on her breasts for a few moments, he flipped them over on the bed, hovering over her as he stared in her eyes.

"Please, Dean. I need you." she whispered, her hand on his cheek and the other on his chest.

The rest of their clothing was quickly thrown off and her hand was wrapped around his aroused manhood, sliding up and down it slowly and torurously. Dean threw his head back and let out a groan at her actions. Elena slowly guided him to her entrance as her legs spreaded, her aching core ready to take him in. He filled her slowly, allowing her to get used to his girth as always. They weren't having sex, they weren't going to be needy or rough. They were going to pour all of their love into this. Every word would be assurance of their adoration for each other. As Dean moved in and out of her, their lips melded together, swallowing their cries of ecstacy.

Higher and higher they climbed, their arms wrapped firmly around each other and their chests pressed flush together. Dean lifted Elena off of the mattress, sitting her on his lap and guiding her hips with his hands, her arms wrapped around his shoulders loosely as their bodies moved in synch.

"I love you. I love you." Elena chanted softly in his ear, her forehead falling to his shoulder as she climbed higher towards her climax.

When they both reached their peak at the same time, their kiss swallowed their screams of pleasure. Then they collapsed back on the mattress, barely moving long enough to pull the blankets over their exhausted bodies.

"I love you." were their last words before they slipped into unconsciousness, neither knowing whether they would ever get another chance to show their love to each other.

* * *

**Author's Note: I'm sorry it wasn't too long! But I didn't want it to be long. And don't get too disappointed about the Mystic Falls characters because they will be showing up again very soon into the next part, like I said before. Review please!**

**A few things:**

**1. POLL TIME! PLEASE VOTE ON THIS IN YOUR REVIEW. The title of the next part of the series, I have a lot of choices for you:**

**a) Cry to Me – Solomon Burke (the song I had playing in the future memory that Elena's mom showed her when she was in heaven)**

**b) Stuck In the Middle – Stealers Wheel (a title that will reflect a lot of what Elena has to deal with in the next part)**

**c) Lonely Is the Night – Billy Squier**

**d) World So Cold – Three Days Grace**

**Let me know what you think in your review!**

**2. Next chapter is the last chapter! Expect greatness and I'll try to deliver!**

**3. I love all of you!**

**4. PLEASE REVIEW!**


	30. Chapter 30

**Disclaimer I do not own TVD or Supernatural**

**Thanks to IgnitingFireworks, TheElegantFaerie, RHatch89, Dark-Supernatural-Angel, chiwi, Dark Alana, DrawingMyHeartOut, Deanwinchesterrocks, Nyssandria, slayerdiaries, DamonSalvatore789, Kathy, xxPaige23xx, diehardromantic, Slytherin Cat, Hollywood17, ****Boolochka06 ****and the two guests for reviewing and to everyone who reviewed this entire story! You got us to 500 reviews and that's the most I've ever got from an individual story so I love you all! Thank you so much for supporting me as an author and this series! I'll see you in the next part. Enjoy. :) **

**To Hollywood17, I'm not exactly skipping straight to a year in the future. **

**A few things:**

**1. The italics are Chuck talking as he writes.**

**2. When Lucifer in Sam's body is confronting Dean at the cemetery, watch this video for the full effect of it. (www youtube com / watch ?v = m0nxfFr0 _ Aw)**

**3. Elena's outfits are on my profile.**

**4. Enjoy!**

* * *

**Music:**

**Carry On Wayward Son – Kansas (TRADITION)**

**Burning Heart – Survivor (just listen to it while you read because I did while I was writing)**

**Rock of Ages - Def Leppard (Dean and Elena entrance into cemetery)**

* * *

"_On April 21, 1967, the 100 millionth GM vehicle rolled off the line at the plant in Janesville… a blue two-door Caprice. There was a big ceremony, speeches. The lieutenant governor even showed up. Three days later, another car rolled off that same line. No one gave two craps about her. But they should have, because this 1967 Chevrolet Impala would turn out to be the most important car, no, the most important object, in pretty much the whole universe. _

_She was first owned by Sal Moriarty, an alcoholic with two ex-wives and three blocked arteries. On weekends, he'd drive around giving Bibles to the poor "gettin' folks right for Judgment Day." That's what he said. Sam and Dean don't know any of this, but if they did, I bet they'd smile. After Sal died, she ended up at Rainbow Motors, a used-car lot in Lawrence, where a young marine bought her on impulse. That is, after a little advice from a friend. I guess that's where this story begins. And here's where it ends."_

* * *

Sam looked up at the clear blue sky as he sat on the hood of the Impala drinking a beer. When he heard footsteps, he turned to see Dean walking towards him.

"Hey." Sam said, watching as his brother pulled a beer out of the cooler and leaned against the Impala, hesitating before he opened it. "Where's Elena?"

"Supply run." He said.

Sam looked at him strangely, surprised that he hadn't heard about this before. Dean sighed and looked out at Bobby's house.

"Dean? What's going on?" Sam asked, concerned.

"I'm in." he said after a moment of hesitance

"In with...?" Sam questioned.

"The whole 'up with Satan' thing. I'm on board." Dean said resignedly.

"You're gonna let me say yes?" he asked, surprised.

"No. That's the thing. It's not on me to let you do anything. You're a grown… well, overgrown… man. If this is what you want, I'll back your play." Dean decided.

"That's the last thing I thought you'd ever say." Sam said, taking a drink of his beer.

"Might be. I'm not gonna lie to you, though. It goes against every fiber I got. I mean, truth is... you know, watching out for you... it's kinda been my job, you know? But more than that, it's... it's kinda who I am. You're not a kid anymore, Sam, and I can't keep treating you like one. Maybe I got to grow up a little, too. I don't know if we got a snowball's chance. But... but I do know that if anybody can do it... it's you." Dean said, staring straight forward as he spoke instead of looking at his brother.

Sam was looking at him though and he felt a sense of satisfaction and fulfillment in his chest as Dean spoke.

"Thank you." he breathed as if he'd been waiting for these words.

"If this is what you want... is this really what you want?" Dean asked, finally looking at him.

"I let him out. I got to put him back in." Sam sighed.

"Okay. That's it, then." Dean nodded.

* * *

Elena trudged up to the warehouse, her hand gripping her dagger. She didn't hesitate as she walked up to the door, slamming it open with her mind. Anyone could have heard a pin drop in the silence that followed her entrance. The demons all stared at her, their eyes wide.

"I just need two of you. Who's willing to volunteer?" she said, holding up her knife.

Five minutes later, she was back in the basement of Bobby's house where Cas was waiting. Her hands were wrapped around around the arms of two unconscious demons and her face and clothing were splattered with blood.

"Here you go." she said, letting them fall to the floor.

She heard footsteps and turned to see Dean and Sam walking in. Sam stared at the bodies with a startled look.

"Supply run?" he said, looking over at Dean.

"That's one word for it." Elena sighed, stepping away as Cas moved to string them up.

"Why?" Sam said, looking at her.

"Elena is the strongest, physically, of any of us right now. It made sense." Castiel said.

"I'm gonna go clean up." Elena said, not wanting to witness the draining of the demons.

* * *

Elena walked behind Sam and Cas as they carried out the jugs of demon blood. Bobby and Dean were standing at the back of the van.

"I still can't get used to you at eye level." Dean said as Elena walked up.

"So, I was right?" Bobby asked, turning to Elena.

"As always, Yoda. Nest of demons inside, just like you said." she nodded.

"And the rest of the nest?" Dean said.

"Some of them ran. Others… well they fought."

"And I'm guessing they didn't last long. Did you get it?" Bobby questioned.

"Yeah, all the go juice Sammy can drink." Dean said, gesturing to where Sam and Cas were loading it up in the trunk of the Impala.

"You okay?" Bobby asked Dean, knowing that it was a stupid question.

"Not really. What do you got?" Dean asked as he looked down at the information Bobby had.

"Not much. These look like omens to you?" he asked, handing Dean a newspaper. "Cyclone in Florida, temperature drop in Detroit, wildfires in L.A."

"Wait. What about Detroit?" Dean asked.

"Temp's dropped about 20 degrees, but only in a five-block radius of downtown Motown." Bobby explained.

"That's the one. Devil's in Detroit." He said with certainty.

"Really? As far as foreboding goes, it's a little light in the loafers. You sure?" Bobby questioned.

Dean glanced over at Sam.

"Yeah, I'm sure." He sighed.

* * *

The Impala was hurtling down the dark road towards Detroit with Bobby's van behind them. He and Sam were in the front and Elena and Cas were in the back. When they heard a slight snore, Dean glanced in the rearview mirror. Castiel's arm was stretched across the back of the seat. Elena was curled into his side with her eyes shut and his head was tilted onto hers, his eyes closed as well. They were both fast asleep. Dean would have been jealous if it wasn't the most awkward angel in the garrison cuddling with his girl.

"Aw. Ain't he a little angel?" he said, smirking over at Sam who glanced back.

"Angels don't sleep. Elena can only sleep cause she's not fully an angel." Sam said, leaving it hanging in the air that, apparently, Cas wasn't a full angel anymore either.

"Sam, I got a bad feeling about this." Dean sighed after a few moments.

"Well, you'd be nuts to have a good feeling about it." Sam replied, letting out a humorless chuckle.

"You know what I mean. Detroit. He always said he'd jump your bones in Detroit. Here we are." Dean explained.

"Here we are." Sam said, not denying what Dean was saying.

"Maybe this is him rolling out the red carpet, you know? Maybe he knows something that we don't." Dean said.

"Dean, I'm sure he knows a buttload we don't. We just got to hope he doesn't know about the rings." Sam said, glancing down at his hands. "Hey, um... on the subject, there's something I got to talk to you about."

"What?"

"This thing goes our way and I... Triple Lindy into that box... y-you know I'm not coming back." he said, looking over at his brother.

"Yeah, I'm aware." Dean admitted unwillingly.

"So you got to promise me something." Sam said.

Dean glanced at him sideway, looking hesitant.

"Okay. Yeah. Anything." He agreed.

"You got to promise not to try to bring me back." Sam sighed.

"What? No, I didn't sign up for that." Dean snapped, shaking his head.

"Dean…"

"Your Hell is gonna make my tour look like Graceland. You want me just to sit by and do nothing?" he demanded.

"Once the Cage is shut, you can't go poking at it, Dean. It's too risky." Sam said, looking at him.

"No, no, no, no, no. As if I'm just gonna let you rot in there." Dean said, staring straight forward.

"Yeah, you are. You don't have a choice." Sam informed him.

Dean glanced over at him, emotion in both of their eyes that they would never say out loud because it never did them any good.

"You can't ask me to do this." he breathed.

"I'm sorry, Dean. You have to." Sam said, just as broken up about it.

"So then what am I supposed to do?" Dean asked.

Sam glanced back to Elena.

You go home with Elena, to Mystic Falls. You pray to God she's dumb enough to keep you, and you… you have barbecues and go to football games and… fancy small town southern parties. You go live some normal, apple-pie life, Dean. Promise me." Sam said as Dean scoffed and looked out of the windshield.

Elena's eyes fluttered open and she looked to the front seat to see Dean's reaction. She'd woken up somewhere around Sam making Dean promise not to save him. It broke her heart to hear him saying those words but she knew that it hurt Dean even more.

* * *

The boys watched as she looked through binoculars into the building in the exact center of the radius of the five block wide freeze zone. She sighed and lowered them, nodding at them.

"Demons. At least two dozen of them." She said.

"You were right… something's up." Bobby said, looking at Dean.

"More than something. He's here. I know it." Dean said before walking to the trunk of the Impala and opening it.

Elena stood behind, watching as Sam and Bobby looked at each other. Tears filled the older hunter's eyes and then they were present in Sam's eyes as well. She drifted away, not wanting to intrude on their private moment.

"I'll see ya around, kid." Bobby whispered, barely able to contain his emotions.

"See ya around." Sam said, his voice thick with emotion.

They drew each other into a tight hug, pouring all of their emotion into that embrace so that the other understood how they felt.

"He gets in... you fight him tooth and nail, you understand?" Bobby said as he pulled away. "Keep swingin'. Don't give an inch." He instructed Sam.

"Yes, sir." Sam nodded, clearing his throat before turning to Castiel awkwardly.

He walked up to him and held his hand out.

"Take care of these guys, okay?" Sam said as Castiel took it.

"That's not possible." Cas sighed, not understanding what Sam was asking for.

"Then humor me." Sam said with an amused chuckle at his continued cluelessness.

"Oh. I was supposed to lie. Uh... sure. They'll be fine." Cas lied with a horrible poker face.

"Just… just stop... talking." Sam said, shaking his head as he turned away.

The way he turned made him end up facing Elena. She bit her lip hard as he walked up to her.

"Elena… I…" he began.

She interrupted him by throwing her arms around him with her head buried in his chest. Her throat filled with a lump as tears burned her eyes. Sam wound his arms around her and put his forehead on the top of her head.

"Take care of him, okay?" he whispered.

She let out a soft sob and nodded with difficulty, her face still hidden in his shirt.

"I… I can't…" she choked out, unable to say what she wanted to say.

He pulled away and looked down at her. Elena lifted her chin and looked at him too, tears running down her cheeks.

"I'm so glad that we met you. I can't imagine how this year would have gone without you. Thank you… for being there to save our asses so many times and… for being there for Dean. He's needed you and I can see how much you love each other." he said, emotional as well.

"I love you too, Sam." she cried, her body shaking with sobs.

He sighed and pulled her into a hug again, placing a kiss to her head. She watched as they disengaged and he turned to walk to the trunk where the jugs of demon blood sat.

"You mind not watching this?" he muttered to Dean.

The older brother sighed before turning to walk off, leaving Sam to do the act in peace. Elena quickly dried off her tears and focused on her shoes as she scuffed them on the ground. About five minutes later, the trunk slammed closed and they all looked to see Sam standing there breathing heavily with a little bit of blood still tainting his lips.

"Okay. Let's go." he said, walking past Dean and Elena.

They stared at him for a moment before glancing at Bobby and Castiel. Then they turned to follow him.

"All right! We're here, you sons of bitches! Come and get it!" Sam shouted as they walked up to the building, his arms spread out wide.

The door opened and two demons appeared. Elena and Dean stood on either side of him, the only support system he was going to have in this difficult time.

"Hey, guys. Is your father home?" Dean asked with a smirk.

They walked forward to grab Dean and Sam, glancing at Elena with a spark of fear in their eyes.

"Don't worry, I'm not the one you have to worry about massacring you." she said, her eyes flickering to Sam.

She followed them, wanting to protest as the demons manhandled Sam and Dean into the building but she wisely kept her mouth shut. They took them to a room two floors up and shoved them inside, standing behind them. They all focused on the figure who was standing at the window looking outside. Lucifer didn't even turn to face them.

"Hey, guys. So nice of you to drop in." he said.

* * *

"_The Impala, of course, has all the things other cars have... and a few things they don't. But none of that stuff's important. This is the stuff that's important. The army man that Sam crammed in the ashtray… it's still stuck there. The Legos that Dean shoved into the vents… to this day, heat comes on and they can hear 'em rattle. These are the things that make the car theirs… really theirs. Even when Dean rebuilt her from the ground up, he made sure all these little things stayed, 'cause it's the blemishes that make her beautiful. The Devil doesn't know or care what kind of car the boys drive."_

* * *

Elena stood on the other side of Sam, who was front and center since it was his time to shine. Lucifer opened his mouth and breathed on the window, making it even colder.

"Sorry if it's a bit chilly." He said as he drew a pitchfork on the frozen glass. "Most people think I burn hot. It's actually quite the opposite."

"Well, I'll alert the media." Dean said gruffly.

Lucifer finally turned to look at him. His vessel looked every worse, red sores covering his face as well as the burn marks and he was even paler.

"Elena, nice to see you again. You're looking well. Help me understand something, guys. I mean, stomping through my front door is... a tad suicidal, don't you think?" he asked.

"We're not here to fight you." Sam said, his clenched fists telling a different story.

"No? Then why are you?" Lucifer asked, walking forward.

None of them even flinched away.

"I want to say yes."

There was a few moments of silence after Sam's declaration.

"Excuse me?" Lucifer said.

Sam took a deep breath and closed his eyes. There was a flash and the two demons behind them dropped dead. Elena and Dean squirmed, every fiber of their being telling them that this was a very bad idea but they couldn't do anything about it because, at the end of the day, it was always Sam's choice.

"Chock-full of Ovaltine, are we?" Lucifer said, smirking.

"You heard me. Yes." Sam repeated.

"You're serious." He realized.

"Look, Judgment Day's a runaway train. We get it now. We just want off." Sam said, staring at him as Elena and Dean looked at each other.

"Meaning?" Lucifer asked.

"Deal of the century. I give you a free ride, but when it's all over, I live, he lives, Elena lives, you bring our parents back, Elena's parents…"

"Okay, can we please drop the telenovela? I know you have the rings, Sam." Lucifer cut him off.

All three of their blood ran cold.

"I have no idea what you're talking about." Sam lied unconvincingly.

"The Horsemen's rings? The magic keys to my Cage? Ring a bell? Come on, Sam. I've never lied to you. You could at least pay me the same respect. It's okay. I'm not mad. A wrestling match inside your noggin... I like the idea. Just you and me, one round, no tricks. You win, you jump in the hole. I win... well, then I win. What do you say, Sam?" Lucifer quesitoned as he circled them.

Elena and Dean backed away a little, wanting to pull Sam away from him as well.

"A fiddle of gold against your soul says I'm better than you." Lucifer sang.

"So he knows. Doesn't change anything." he said.

"Sam." Elena and Dean said at the same time.

"We don't have any other choice." Sam cut them off.

"No." Dean said, looking at him with wide eyes.

"Yes." Sam said, staring straight at Lucifer.

Elena and Dean watched with horror as Lucifer tilted his head back and looked up, bright light flowing out of his body. They shielded their eyes as a ringing noise filled the air. When their eyes opened, both Lucifer's former vessel and Sam were lying on the ground. Elena looked at Dean with wide eyes and he nodded at her, digging in his pockets for the ring. She collapsed on her knees next to Sam, who she hoped was still Sam.

"Bvtmon... Tabges...Babalon." Dean chanted after he threw the rings against the wall where they stuck.

Wind filled the room as air began sucking into the hole that was formed by the rings into a bottomless black pit.

"Sam!" Elena yelled, trying to rouse him.

He stirred and his body flailed out.

"Sammy!" Dean shouted, turning to face him.

"Dean!" Sam grunted, trying to sit up.

Dean and Elena helped him stand up, both of them relieved that it was still SAm.

"I can feel him. Oh, God!" he groaned as he staggered around.

"You got to go now! Come on!" They led him to the portal.

"Go now, Sammy. Now!"

They watched as he walked towards the hole. But then he stopped and, after a few moments, turned back with a grin.

"I was just messing with you. Sammy's long gone." Lucifer said, looking very proud of himself.

He turned back to the hole in the wall and held his hand out.

"Chdr bvtmon tabges babalon." He said.

The hole closed and Lucifer took the rings off of the wall before turning to face Dean.

"I told you... this would always happen in Detroit." He said.

Then his eyes fell on Elena.

"The offer is still open. Find me and I'll give you everything." He said before disappearing.

They both stared at the spot before Dean put his hands to his head and turned, tears in his eyes as he was devastated and broken now. Hope was gone and now they had nothing.

"Dean." Elena said, her hand going to her mouth shakily.

Was it all over? That easily? She walked up to him slowly, wrapping her arms around his neck and burying her face in his chest. He was frozen for a moment before his arms finally slid around her torso and his own face buried into her hair.

"What do we do now?" he whispered.

* * *

Lucifer flexed his new body as he walked past the five people standing perfectly still in a loose circle. In the next room, a large mirror stood on the wall.

"Sam. Come on. I can feel you... scratching away in there." he looked into the mirror. "Look... I'll take the gag off, okay?"

In the next moment, Sam was glaring out of the mirror at the devil in his body.

"You got me all wrong, kiddo. I'm not the bad guy here." Lucifer said.

"I'm gonna rip you apart from the inside out. Do you understand me?" Sam snapped.

"Such anger... young Skywalker. Who are you really angry with? Me? Or that face in the mirror?" he questioned, tilting his head to the side.

"I'm sure this is all a big joke to you, huh?" Sam snapped.

"Not at all. I've been waiting for you... for a long, long time. Come on, Sam. You have to admit… you can feel it, right?"

"What?" Sam demanded, squinting at him.

"The exhilaration. And you know why that is? Because we're two halves made whole. Made for each other. Literally." Lucifer said with a slight smile.

"This feels pretty damn far from good." Sam shot back.

"I'm inside your grapefruit, Sam. You can't lie to me. I see it all… how odd you always felt, how... out of place in that... family of yours. And why shouldn't you have? They were foster care… at best. I'm your real family."

"No, that's not true." Sam said, shaking his head.

"It is. And I know you know it. All those times you ran away, you weren't running from them. You were running towards me. This doesn't have to be a bad thing, you know. I let Dean live, didn't I? I want him to live. I'll bring your folks back, too. I want you to be happy, Sam." Lucifer offered.

"I don't want anything from you." Sam snapped.

"Really? Not even a little payback?" he suggested.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Look closely." Lucifer said, gesturing to the people behind him. "None of these little devils look familiar to you?"

"That's Mr. Bensman... one of my grade-school teachers." He said, his brow furrowing.

"And that's your friend Doug from that time in East Lansing. And Rachel... your prom date. Sam Winchester, this is your life. Azazel's gang… watching you since you were a rugrat, jerking you around like a dog on a leash. I know how you feel about them. Me too. So, what do you say you and I blow off a little steam?" Lucifer said with a smirk.

* * *

They were on the street, still in Detroit, all of them lost on what to do now. Elena and Cas were leaning against the Impala that was parked on the side of the street while Dean and Bobby watched the televisions report the news through a glass pane in an electronics store.

"Reports are flooding in… a 7.6 earthquake in Portland, 8.1 in Boston, more in Hong Kong, Berlin, and Tehran. The U.S.G.S. has no explanation but says to expect a six-figure death toll." The reporter was saying.

"It's starting." Cas said as Dean and Bobby turned to walk to them.

"Yeah, you think, genius?" Dean snapped, his mood quite foul for good reasons.

He'd lost his brother and now they were going to lose this fight. It was enough to make anyone break down but they knew that they couldn't. They had to keep fighting until their last breath.

"You don't have to be mean." Cas said, sounding vaguely hurt by Dean's anger being pointed at him.

"So what do we do now?" Elena asked, looking at the three males.

"I suggest we imbibe copious quantities of alcohol... just wait for the inevitable blast wave." Cas said, looking completely beaten down.

"Yeah, swell. Thank you, Bukowski. How do we stop it?" Dean said, tired of the angel's lack of care.

"We don't. Lucifer will meet Michael on the chosen field, and the battle of Armageddon begins." Castiel informed him.

"Okay, well, where's this chosen field?" Dean questioned.

"I don't know." he sighed.

"Well, there's got to be something that we can do." Dean said, his voice a little louder out of sheer frustration.

"I'm sorry, Dean. This is over." Castiel said, shaking his head.

"You listen to me, you junkless sissy…" Dean growled, pointing at him.

"Dean!" Elena said, ready to defend Cas.

"… we are not giving up! Bobby?" Dean looked at the older hunter for help.

When he didn't offer any, Dean's face fell further and Elena bit her lip, knowing that he lost faith as well.

"Bobby?" Dean questioned.

"There was never much hope to begin with. I don't know what to do." Bobby said resignedly.

* * *

Lucifer sat on the steps, looking over at another mirror that was half hanging off the wall. He was covered in blood from the five demons that he'd slaughtered. Sam stared back at him, his eyes wide and regretful.

"So..." Lucifer exhaled sharply. "… are we having fun yet?"

* * *

"_In between jobs, Sam and Dean would sometimes get a day… sometimes a week, if they were lucky. They'd pass the time lining their pockets. Sam used to insist on honest work, but now he hustles pool, like his brother. They could go anywhere and do anything. They drove one thousand miles for an Ozzy show, two days for a Jayhawks game. And when it was clear, they'd park her in the middle of nowhere, sit on the hood, and watch the stars... for hours... without saying a word. It never occurred to them that, sure, maybe they never really had a roof and four walls..." _

Chuck stared at the screen as he wrote and spoke.

"...but they were never, in fact, homeless. That's a good line." He nodded, praising himself.

The phone rang, pulling him out of his writing stupor.

"Mistress Magda?" he said as soon as he answered.

"Um, no, Chuck." Dean's voice said on the other line.

"Oh, uh, Dean. Uh, wow. I, uh, I didn't know that you'd call." He stammered.

"Who's Mistress Magda?" the Winchester asked, sounding amused.

"Nothing. She's a, uh, a… just a, uh... a close friend."

"Yeah, I'll bet… real close. Whatever happened to Becky?" Dean questioned, his smirk clear in his voice.

"Didn't work out. I had too much respect for her." Chuck replied.

"Boy, you really got a whole virgin/hooker thing going on, don't you?"

"Okay, this can't be why you called." The prophet sighed.

"Sam said yes." Dean said after a moment of silence, the teasing tone gone from his voice.

"I know. I saw it. I'm just working on the pages." Chuck said regretfully.

"Did you see where the title fight goes down?" the hunter asked.

"The angels are keeping it top secret… very hush-hush." Chuck answered.

"Aw, crap." Dean sighed, sounding discouraged.

"But I saw it anyway. Perks of being a prophet. It's tomorrow, high noon… place called Stull Cemetery." Chuck informed him, a slight smile on his face.

"Stull Ceme… wait. I know that. That's… that's an old boneyard outside of Lawrence. Why Lawrence?" Dean asked.

"I don't know. It all has to end where it started, I guess." Chuck shrugged.

"All right, Chuck. You know of any way to short-circuit this thing?"

"Besides the rings? No. I'm sorry." He said.

"Well, do you have any idea what's gonna happen next?" Dean asked.

"I wish that I did. But I-I just - I honestly don't know yet." He said, sounding as though he really wishd that he could help.

"All right. Thanks, Chuck." Dean sighed.

Chuck sighed as he hung up before turning back to the computer.

_"Then the Impala got a new inhabitant. Someone that no one expected would be there, not even the Winchesters themselves. She brought a cheer the Impala that hadn't been seen in a while. Her smile lit up the whole car even when the brothers themselves were in the worst of moods. And her name was Elena Gilbert, an eighteen-year-old girl from Mystic Falls, Virginia. Lucifer doesn't care that she made the boys smile. He doesn't care that she brought happiness to their lives when they couldn't imagine making it another day. That was his second mistake."_

* * *

Elena looked over at Dean as he finished the call.

"I have to go." he said, looking down at his hands where he was holding the amulet in his hands, finally allowing Elena to take it off her neck and give it back to him.

"I know." She replied.

He looked up at her, looking uncertain.

"You don't have to come. I can… I can do this." he said, sounding as though the words pained her.

Elena looked down, pulling the amulet out of his hands. Then she stretched out the leather cord and pulled it over his head softly, allowing the amulet to drop to where it laid just over his heart just like it should have been.

"I'm coming." She said, looking up at him.

"I can't ask that of you." he sighed.

"You didn't have to." She replied simply, placing her head against his.

"I can't let you do this alone. Sam either. I love you both too much. So I'm going to be there and I'm going to fight like hell right along beside you." she said, gripping his hands in hers.

They both squeezed their eyes shut, knowing that this might be the last time that they could embrace like this.

"I love you." he whispered.

Their lips pressed against each others softly and quickly before they drew away and nodded. It was time to get ready. Dean packed up the trunk of the Impala as Elena went inside to change clothes. Her hair was pulled up into a simple ponytail to keep it out of the way. When she came back out, her sheath and knife tied around a belt loop and ready to go, Bobby and Cas were walking towards the Impala.

"You goin' someplace? You're goin' to do somethin' stupid. You got that look." Bobby said.

"I'm gonna go talk to Sam." Dean said, slamming the trunk closed.

"You just don't give up." Bobby said, staring at him.

"It's Sam!" Dean snapped.

Elena walked up to them, standing beside Dean and taking his hand.

"You too?" Bobby said.

"It's Sam." she repeated Dean's words as they were the only ones they needed to explain what they were doing.

"If you couldn't reach him here, you're certainly not gonna be able to on the battlefield." Cas said.

"Well, if we've already lost, I guess I got nothing to lose, right?" Dean asked, shrugging.

"I just want you to understand… the only thing that you're gonna see out there is Michael killing your brother." the angel said, stepping up close to him.

"Well, then I ain't gonna let him die alone." Dean said stubbornly.

Elena bit her lip and walked to the other side of the Impala as he climbed into the driver's side and she into the passenger's. Dean sighed and looked over at her.

"I just want to say, I don't regret a thing. I'm so glad that I got to have this time with you even if it all ends here and now." Dean said.

She smiled slightly.

"Me too." She said, nodding.

"You ready to hold hands and sail off this cliff together?" he asked, holding out his hand as he referenced Thelma and Louise.

"I'm as ready as I'll ever be." she said, taking his hand.

* * *

Lucifer was standing in the cemetary alone, ignoring the continuous scratching in his head. When he heard the familiar flutter of wings, he turned to see his brother taking form in a nineteen-year-old half-Winchester's body.

"It's good to see you, Michael." He said, stepping forward.

"You too. It's been too long. Can you believe it's finally here?" Michael replied.

"No. Not really." Lucifer answered.

The ground tremored slightly underneath their feet as if the earth itself was waiting for their battle.

"Are you ready?" Michael asked, tilting his head to the side.

"As I'll ever be. A part of me wishes we didn't have to do this." Lucifer sighed.

"Yeah. Me too." Michael said, sounding genuine.

"Then why are we?" Lucifer asked, his expression softening as he stepped forward slightly.

"Oh, you know why! I have no choice, after what you did." Michael countered, not fooled by his innocent look.

"What I did? What if it's not my fault?" Lucifer demanded.

"What is that supposed to mean?" Michael scoffed.

"Think about it. Dad made everything. Which means he made me who I am! God wanted the Devil." Lucifer said, sneering.

"So?" Michael said.

"So why? And why make us fight? I just can't figure out the point." Lucifer answered.

"What's your point?" the archangel asked.

"We're going to kill each other. And for what? One of Dad's tests. And we don't even know the answer. We're brothers. Let's just walk off the chessboard." Lucifer suggested.

Michael looked down at his feet before looking back up at his brother.

"I'm sorry. I… I can't do that. I'm a good son, and I have my orders." He sighed.

"But you don't have to follow them." Lucifer argued.

"What, you think I'm gonna rebel? Now? I'm not like you." Michael said, shaking his head.

"Please, Michael…" Lucifer began to plead.

"You know, you haven't changed a bit, little brother. Always blaming everybody but yourself. We were together. We were happy. But you betrayed me… all of us… and you made our father leave." Michael accused him.

"No one makes Dad do anything. He is doing this to us." Lucifer snapped.

"You're a monster, Lucifer. And I have to kill you." Michael said wth certainty.

Lucifer nodded, his eyes shining with tears of grief that would not fall.

"If that's the way it's got to be... then I'd like to see you try." He challenged his brother.

They slowly began to circle each other until they heard the familiar roar of a loud car engine. Both of their heads turned to see the source.

* * *

Elena and Dean sat there in the Impala, looking at Lucifer and Michael facing off using Sam and Adam as their forms.

"Ready?" Dean asked.

"As I'll ever be." she said, clenching his hand tightly.

He reached down and stuck a tape into the radio.

"If I don't get another chance to tell you, you look really beautiful… and sexy." He said with a smirk.

"Always the flirt." She said, smirking back.

Dean leaned in and captured her into a passionate kiss, his hand trapping her with its placement on the back of her neck. She didn't mind. When they broke apart, both breathless, she smiled.

"Love you." she said.

"Love you too." He replied.

"All right! I got something to say! Hey it's better to burn out! Yeah! Than fade awaaay all right oh! Gonna start a fire!"

As they approached the two archangels, they both had matching glares on their faces. When Dean stopped the car, not bothering to turn the music off, they climbed out without looking at each other, their faces devoid of emotion.

"Howdy, boys." Dean said, leaning forward on the car door.

"We're gonna burn this damn place down! Ooh, ooh! Down to the ground!" the music blared.

"Sorry. He's so rude. Are we interrupting something?" Elena asked innocently, looking between the obviously annoyed angels.

"Hey. We need to talk." Dean said, reaching over to turn off the engine as he stared at Lucifer.

Elena walked forward with Dean, both of them staring at the devil.

"Dean. Even for you, this is a whole new mountain of stupid." Lucifer said.

"I'm not talking to you. I'm talking to Sam." Dean fired back.

"You're no longer the vessel, Dean. You got no right to be here." Michael said in a deep voice, not sounding or looking anything like Adam.

"Adam, if you're in there somewhere, I am so sorry." Dean said, sounding truly regretful.

"Adam isn't home right now." Michael replied.

"Well, then you're next on my list, buttercup. But right now, I need five minutes with him." he said, pointing at Lucifer.

"You little maggot. You are no longer a part of this story!" Michael yelled, starting forward.

"Hey, ass-butt!" all of their heads whipped around with surprise to see Bobby and Cas standing there.

Castiel was holding a bottle with flames burning out of it along with a rag. He threw the bottle at Michael, causing the archangel to scream as he burned up and disappeared. They all stared at the spot for a few moments before turning to Cas.

"Ass-butt?"

Cas shrugged, a distressed look on his face that showed he thought about the insult he would use for a while. Elena bit back a smile at his helpless look.

"He'll be back… and upset… but you got your five minutes." Cas said, nodding at them.

Elena felt her heart warming at his words. That was until Lucifer stepped forward, a dangerous glint in his eyes that didn't belong on Sam's face.

"Castiel. Did you just Molotov my brother with holy fire?" he said in a low, even voice that was more dangerous than shouting.

"Uh... no." Cas said, stepping backwards.

"No one dicks with Michael but me." Lucifer warned, raising his hand.

"No!" Elena screamed, realizing what was about to happen.

She flew forward to stop him but she was too late and Cas exploded into chunks of blood and meat. Lucifer caught her with his hand around her throat and squeezed, making Dean dart forward. Lucifer flicked his hand and he was thrown backwards.

"My patience is wearing thin with you, Elena." he said softly.

She let out a sputtering noise but he tilted his head to the side as he couldn't hear what she was trying to say.

"What was that?" he asked.

"I said, fuck you." she spat, glaring at him.

He narrowed his eyes at her and suddenly she was flying across the graveyard. She slammed into a tree and suddenly fell to the ground unconscious. Dean was back on his feet and fighting the urge to run to Elena, concentrating on his brother instead.

"Sammy, can you hear me?" he asked.

"You know... I tried to be nice... for Sammy's sake. But you... are such a pain... in my ass." Lucifer growled, gripping his leather jacket before throwing him back onto the windshield of the Impala.

Shots filled the air as Bobby unloaded a gun in his back. Lucifer turned and stared at him as he shot him once more in the front. Then his hand lifted and he snapped the older hunter's neck with a flick of his wrist.

"No!" Dean yelled, sitting up and watching with horror as his best father figure collapsed to the ground, lifeless.

"Yes." Lucifer hissed, grabbing his legs and pulling him off of the hood.

He punched Dean hard, causing him to fly to the ground, spitting up blood.

"Sammy? Are you in there?" he groaned.

"Oh, he's in here, all right." Lucifer said, kicking him in the ribs.

"And he's gonna feel the snap of your bones." he said, lifting him up and landing another punch to his face.

"Every single one." Another punch. "We're gonna take our time."

He continued to punch him so he didn't notice when Elena began to rouse from where she was lying.

"Sam, it's okay. It's okay. I'm here. I'm here. I'm not gonna leave you." Dean said, his face swollen and broken in several places.

Elena hauled herself to her feet, stumbling to run over to where they were against the Impala.

"I'm not gonna leave you." Dean grunted.

Lucifer drew back for another punch just as sunlight glinted off of the window, catchign his eye. His head tilted to the side as several things caught his interest at once. First of all, he saw the army man shoved in the ashtray. Then a flash of a memory went through his head, shoving the thing in the door. Dean pushing the legos into the heater. Both of them carving their initals into the Impala. Then he saw Elena's reflection, a trickle of blood running down her head where she was standing, a look of horror on her face.

A flash of her smiling at Sam, talking about physics. Singing with him. Dancing with him. Making Dean laugh. Making everyone laugh. Splashing him with water at the beach. Climbing on his back and kissing his cheek. Dean and Sam in the car, laughing as they sang Bon Jovi. Dean tossing the keys to Sam on the Wendigo case. Sam waking up with a spoon in his mouth. Flashes of their life together went through his head one after the other, each become stronger and clearer. Elena sleeping curled up in the back with Cas. All of them sitting on the hood drinking beer, Elena's head laying on Sam's shoulder and Dean's hand in her lap while she stroked it softly. Elena healing and saving them time after time, assuring them both that everything would be all right.

He stared at the window for a moment as his fist slowly unclenched. Then he let go of Dean, stumbling backwards and inhaling sharply as Dena fell to the ground. Elena stayed back, unsure of what was happening.

"It's okay, Dean. It's gonna be okay. I've got him." he said, staring at his brother.

He pulld the Horseman's rings out of his pocket and tossed them on the ground, both of the other two frozen, their hearts breaking, as they watched him.

"Bvtmon tabges babalon." He chanted.

The ground rumbled and began to cave in as air was sucked into the hole. Sam turned to look at Dean, everything in his eyes that he never got to say enough to his brother. Then he turned to Elena, nodding to her as tears streamed down her face. He took a deep breath and turned towards the cavern.

"Sam! It's not gonna end this way! Step back!" a voice yelled.

Elena and Sam both looked to where Michael appeared.

"You're gonna have to make me!" Sam shouted.

"I have to fight my brother, Sam! Here and now! It's my destiny!" Michael said.

Elena looked back at Sam and saw him look at Dean, nodding as he spreaded his arms. She caught Michael as he went to tackle Sam away from it. Instead of letting him pull Sam in the other direction, she propelled him into Sam. At the last moment, his hands went to her neck and broke it, causing her body to collapse to the ground lifeless just next to the hole as both Sam and Michael tumbled in headfirst.

"Elena!" Dean yelled, panicked.

The hole closed a few moments later in a blinding flash of light and he was left alone, leaning against the Impala with tears streaming down his face. He crawled over to Elena, ignoring the pain. He mourned over her body, not even caring about who saw but no one would see because he was truly alone in the world now. That's when he felt the presence next to him. He turned to see Castiel standing there looking alive and well.

"Cas, you're alive?" he said, speaking with difficulty because of the broken bones in his face.

"I'm better than that." he said, reaching out and touching Dean's forehead.

Dean's wounds healed automatically and he stumbled to his feet.

"Cas, are you God?" he asked.

The rejuvinated angel let out a chuckle.

"That's a nice compliment. But no. Although, I do believe he brought me back. New and improved." Cas said, kneeling down and touching Elena.

Dean panicked when she disappeared.

"What did you do?" he demanded.

"I sent her to Mystic Falls. She is healed but I know that her family needs to know that she is all right. I trust you can find your way back to her." Cas said, walking over to Bobby and touching his forehead, resurrecting him as well.

Dean looked down at the Horsemen's rings that he still held in his hand.

* * *

_Endings are hard. Any chapped-ass monkey with a keyboard can poop out a beginning, but endings are impossible. You try to tie up every loose end, but you never can. The fans are always gonna bitch. There's always gonna be holes. And since it's the ending, it's all supposed to add up to something. I'm telling you, they're a raging pain in the ass._

* * *

Dean was driving as Cas sat in the passenger's seat of the Impala.

"What are you gonna do now?" Dean asked, his voice tired and full of sadness.

"Return to Heaven, I suppose." The angel replied.

"Heaven?" Dean questioned.

"With Michael in the Cage, I'm sure it's total anarchy up there."

"So, what, you're the new sheriff in town?" Dean asked.

"I like that. Yeah. I suppose I am." Cas nodded, smiling slightly.

"Wow. God gives you a brand-new, shiny set of wings, and suddenly you're his bitch again." Dean scoffed.

"I don't know what God wants. I don't know if he'll even return. It just... seems like the right thing to do."

"Well, if you do see him, you tell him I'm coming for him next." He snapped.

"You're angry." Cas acknowledged.

"That's an understatement." Dean shot back.

"He helped. Maybe even more than we realize." Cas said.

"That's easy for you to say. He brought you back. But what about Sam? What about me, huh? Where's my grand prize? All I got is my brother in a hole!" Dean demanded.

"You got what you asked for, Dean. No paradise. No hell. Just more of the same. I mean it, Dean. What would you rather have? Peace or freedom?" Cas asked.

Dean took a deep breath and looked over to see that the angel was gone.

"Well, you really suck at goodbyes, you know that?" he said.

* * *

Dean looked up at Bobby as he finished packing everything into the Impala. Bobby simply nodded at him and pulled him into a hug.

"You tell that girl I better see you two soon, okay?" he said.

"Sure will, Bobby." Dean agreed.

"_This is the last Dean and Bobby will see of each other for a very long time. And, for the record, at this point next week, Bobby will be hunting a rugaru outside of Dayton. But not Dean. Dean didn't want Cas to save him. Every part of him, every fiber he's got, wants to die, or find a way to bring Sam back. But he isn't gonna do either. Because he made a promise and he loves someone. So, what's it all add up to? It's hard to say. But me, I'd say this was a test... for Sam and Dean and Elena. And I think they did all right. Up against good, evil, angels, devils, destiny, and God himself, they made their own choice. They chose family. And, well... isn't that kinda the whole point? No doubt… endings are hard. But then again... nothing ever really ends, does it?"_

Chuck smiled slightly as he typed the last words before he disappeared.

* * *

Elena's eyes flew open and she sat up with a gasp, looking around wildly.

"Thank God, you're awake." She heard a sigh of relief and turned to see Caroline, Bonnie, Jeremy, and Alaric at her side.

"What happened?" she asked, confused as she looked down at the couch that she was on.

"You just appeared. You were unconscious or dead. I mean, one second we couldn't find your pulse and you weren't breathing and the next you were breathing just fine." Jeremy explained.

She suddenly remembered everything, staring ahead with wide eyes.

"Dean? Where's Dean? And Sam? What happened?" she questioned quickly, panicking.

"We're not sure what happened. But Dean called. He's on his way here." Bonnie said, taking her hand.

Elena looked devastated at her words. Tears filled her eyes and she curled her knees to her chest, putting her head on them.

"Elena that's a good thing." Caroline said, putting her hand on her shoulder.

"No, no it's not. That means that it's over. That means Sam is gone. Cas is dead. Bobby is dead." She cried softly, looking at them with a trembling lip and her eyes shining sadly.

* * *

Dean sighed heavily as he pulled up to the curb, turning the car off and sitting in silence for a few moments. Finally, he slowly climbed out of the car and ambled up the sidewalk. The door ripped open and he looked up, immediately catching sight of Elena's face. She didn't say a word. She didn't ask how he was or what else happened. She just opened her arms and welcomed him into them as he stumbled through the door. Her hand was stroking his hair softly as she held him close, both of their hearts heavy.

"Cas is alive. So is Bobby." He mumbled in her ear.

Elena pulled away and looked at him.

"Did Cas bring me back?" she asked.

He nodded and she sighed, pulling him back into her arms.

"Come inside. Let's get some rest." Elena said, pulling him in and knowing that there was nothing else she could say for now.

"I don't think I can sleep." He said numbly, following her motions anyway.

"Then we'll lay there." she sighed tiredly, pulling him up the stairs slowly.

They weren't aware of the sympathetic eyes of her family and friends watching them. When they got up to her room, they collapsed on the bed facing each other.

"Are you sure you don't want to go stay in Sioux Falls with Bobby?" she asked softly.

"I promised Sammy. No more hunting. I want to stay here with you." he said.

Elena reached out and stroked his cheek.

"Okay. We'll stay here." She murmured.

Dean closed his eyes and inhaled softly, lifting his hand to lay over hers and trap it against his cheek.

"Dean." Elena whispered.

His lip trembled slightly and a tear slid out of one of his closed eyes. Elena bit her lip and held back her tears, pulling him into her arms and allowing him to mourn in her embrace until they both slid into unconsciousness.

* * *

The next morning, Dean woke up alone in the bed. He panicked a little until he smelled the food wafting through the open bedroom door. He stood out of the bed and stumbled down the stairs, rubbing his eyes and shifting uncomfortably in the clothing he slept in all night. When he walked into the kitchen, he found Elena cooking breakfast.

"Hey." She said, her voice slightly hoarse.

The smile on her face was too wide to be real. He walked to her and gathered her in his arms, kissing her forehead.

"Thank you." he said, stroking her hair.

"For what?" she asked, looking up at him.

"Being here… for me." he answered.

Elena simply smiled and gestured to the food.

"Let's eat breakfast." She said, loading food onto two plates.

"Where are Jeremy and Alaric?" Dean asked as they sat on the couch, Elena curled up against his side.

"I don't know. They were gone when I woke up." Elena said with a clueless look.

"Think they're avoiding us?" he asked, nudging her.

Elena looked at him, shaking her head.

"It's a shame if they are. We are two great big balls of sunshine wrapped in happiness." She said, taking a bite of bacon.

They looked at each other and the corner of Dean's mouth twitched as Elena tried and failed to hold back a slight smile. Not a moment later, they both bursted into laughter, bowing their heads embarrassingly.

"Oh we're horrible. That wasn't even funny." Elena said, shaking her head at their actions.

"No, it was pretty miserable. But we survived a lot this year. And I think…" Dean broke off, their smiles disappearing as they both knew what he was going to say.

"I think Sammy would want us to laugh." he finished.

Elena took his plate and set them both of the table in front of them. Then she curled into his side and warpped her arms around his torso.

"I think he would too." She admitted.

They sat there in silence, both thinking of their lost family member, until they heard the front door open. Both of them sat up as everyone walked in.

"Hey guys." Caroline said, smiling.

"Hi Care." Elena said, looking at the many people behind her.

Everyone was there, Jeremy, Ric, Damon, Stefan, Caroline, Bonnie, Tyler, and Matt.

"What's going on?" she asked.

"Well, we brought food and beer for later and games and stuf. We thought you two could use… well…" Bonnie trailed off.

"Distraction." Damon finally said.

Elena hid a smile and looked at Dean questioningly to see if he was up to it.

"I'm gonna kick all your asses at poker." He announced, gesturing to the cards in Jeremy's hands.

"Dude. Vampire. I'd like to see you try." Damon scoffed, snatching the deck away from the younger Gilbert and walking to the table.

"I'll bet you a drink at the Grill." Dean said, jumping up and following him.

"You're on." Damon said, reaching out to shake his hand.

On the outside, it looked like they were closing a deal but Elena knew that it was acceptance. She smiled as she walked to the table, leaning over his shoulders as Alaric dealt.

"I got your clothes and stuff from Bobby's. Just so you know." Dean informed her when he remembered suddenly.

"Oh good. I'll go get it." she said, pulling the keys from his pocket.

"We'll help." Caroline said, pulling Bonnie to the door with them.

"Good Lord, how many clothes do you have?" Caroline grunted as they gathered the bags.

"I went shopping a lot." Elena shrugged, grinning as they walked back up to the house.

Little did thye know, they were being watched by familiar eyes. Sam stood on the street corner watchign with a carefully guarded expression. Elena felt his presence too late, turning to see the corner empty as she stopped on the porch. She sighed and shrugged it off, telling herself that she was imagining things. Sam was, in fact, walking the other way away from his brother and Elena, not knowing that he was being watched as well.

* * *

"Father." The deep voice said, the head of the angel bowing as the man in the white suit walked through the beautiful garden that closely imitated the gardens at Versailles Palace as they looked in the time of Louis XIV.

"Joshua." He nodded at his ever faithful messenger.

"It is nice to see that you have returned." He said.

"I thought it was about time. But you know that this is not to be spoken of. My presence in heaven is not to be known by any of my children except for the two that I've selected." He warned the angel.

"Yes, Father, I know." Joshua nodded respectfully.

"Tell them where I am when they arrive, please, my son." He said, patting his shoulder before moving past him to walk to the fountain in the middle of the garden.

"Hello, Daddy." A voice said a few minutes later and he turned to see his son leaning against one of the hedges.

"Gabriel. You look well." he said, nodding at him while beckoning him closer.

"Father, you look… scruffy." Gabriel replied, tilting his head to the side.

He narrowed his eyes at his son who met his gaze fearlessly as he always did.

"Why are you still in the form of the prophet?" Gabriel asked.

"Why are you still in the form of the trickster?" he replied.

"I like it. It's comfortable."

God simply nodded, smiling slightly.

"Father, you know someone is bound to notice your presence at some point." A new voice said as he strode into the clearing.

When Gabriel and the newcomer came face to face, they narrowed their eyes at each other, sizing the other up.

"Gabriel, it's been a while." Michael said.

"Oh you know, just a couple hundred years. How you doing, bro?" Gabriel replied.

"You should have been there to fight with me." the older archangel said, his mouth pressed into a thin line once he finished speaking.

"Hey I did my part, Mikey. I got everybody all ready for the big showdown. It was your job to pop Luci back in the hotbox. Congratulations, by the way, on your big success." He said, clapping a few times.

"Gabriel, enough." God sighed, shaking his head.

Gabriel simply shrugged and pulled out a red lollipop, unwrapping it and popping it into his mouth. Then he turned his eyes on his oldest son.

"Michael what have you done with the boy whose body you're wearing?" he asked.

"Zachariah promised him a reunion with his mother. I delivered on that promise." Michael said.

"Good, good. Was it absolutely necessary to kill the girl?" he asked, raising an eyebrow at him.

"I wasn't supposed to be in the cage, Father. That was not part of the plan." Michael said, frustration breaking through the emotionless barrier that he tried to uphold.

"So, you panicked?" Gabriel asked tauntingly, smirking.

Michael rolled his eyes and looked at his father.

"Castiel pulled Sam Winchester out of the box. I saw it happen just before you brought me out of there." he said.

"I know. That is what I intended to happen. Castiel is always so eager to help the Winchesters." God nodded, sitting on the edge of the fountain.

"But… something is wrong." Michael said, his brow furrowing slightly.

"I know that too. Do not worry, son. It is part of the plan." He said, looking down at the manuscript he was holding in his hands.

"Care to let us in on the rest of the plan, Pops?" Gabriel asked.

"In due time. Meanwhile Sam has left Dean and Elena to live their life but it will not last forever. They will need further guidance and, since they believe that you are in the cage with Lucifer, Gabriel will have to do the job." God said.

"But they think I'm dead." Gabriel reminded him.

"And your resurrection is easily explainable, is it not?" he asked, looking up at his son.

"Yeah but…" he shrugged, shuffling his feet.

"What?"

"Elena's gonna be pissed." Gabriel pointed out.

"Yes, she probably is. But that's a risk you're going to have to take. They are far too important to let them go their own way. You know that." he said.

"Father, I have one query." Michael said, staring at him.

"Speak, my son." He nodded.

"Why did you bring back Castiel? Of all the angels? Zachariah? Anna? All those who believed they were doing what you would want them to do?" he asked.

"There are four pieces to our plan, four keys, if you will. Elena Gilbert. Dean Winchester. Sam Winchester. And Castiel. He is as important as the rest of them." He said.

"Yeah but I've seen the future. I know what happens. Castiel is going to…"

"I know what he's going to do. It must be allowed to happen. It is fate and even we cannot stop it. Even then, it leads them closer to their purpose, to what we really created all of them for." God said.

"Angels are going to die, Father. Your children. Hundreds… thousands." Michael said.

"And I will bring every one of them back. All of my children, reunited in heaven, after they serve their necessary punishments for their behavior." God said.

"All of them?" Michael said, raising an eyebrow.

He turned to look at Michael.

"No matter what he does or doesn't do, he is still your brother, Michael. And despite what he thinks, he is still my son. So yes, all of them." He said, nodding.

Gabriel let out a low whistle.

"I never thought I'd say this, Father. But I think you're getting a little ambitious." He said.

"Unfortunately, I must agree." Michael said begrudgingly.

"We'll see." He said knowingly.

* * *

**Author's Note: Surprising enough for you? I tried to make it as good of an ending as Hells Bells but I might have failed miserably. Let me know what you think!**

**Thank you so much to everyone again for reading and reviewing and for helping me write this story! I love you all so much!**

**The information for the next part of the story will be posted in an author's note after this chapter. By the way, the winner of the name is 'Stuck In the Middle' so that's what it'll be called. But all of those other songs are going to reflect main themes of the next part so get ready for that.**

**Review please!**


	31. Author's Note - NEW STORY

**Author's Note**

**I just published the new story! Yay! Here is the URL:**

**www fanfiction net / s / 9060795 / 1 / Stuck – in – the - Middle**

**And this is the description:**

**Sequel to 'Hells Bells' and 'Burning Heart', Elena and Dean are settled in Mystic Falls but what happens when a familiar face shows up? As civil war wages in heaven, the Winchesters and Elena along with Cas and Bobby deal with old friends and enemies as well as new ones as they battle their personal demons. Dean/Elena Rated M for violence, language, and lemons**

**READ AND REVIEW AND ENJOY! I look forward to starting another journey with you! Thank you so much!**


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